Name: Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: one pound of sweet potatoes till half done; a pound of butter; a pound of butter beaten to a cream; a pound of sugar; a pint of new milk; half done; six eggs well beaten; six eggs beaten very light; nutmeg; cinnamon

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes: Provides starch and bulk, giving the pudding its body.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, keeping the crumb tender.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps creamed butter hold air.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set during baking to give structure.
Milk: Adds liquid that keeps the mixture moist.

The step that matters

Beating the butter and sugar to a cream. Beating softened butter with sugar traps air in the fat, which helps the pudding rise and gives it a light texture. Under-beaten butter leaves a denser result.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon):

Sweet potatothe original
Potatofits about as well
Arrowrootfits less well
Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6

Sweet Potato Pudding