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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pudding

A sweet dessert made from mashed sweet potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, brandy, rose-water, and spices, baked into puddings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Gather half pound of butter, 1/2 pound of sugar, 5 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy, and 2 tablespoonfuls of rose-water.

  2. Boil 1 pound of sweet potatoes until tender, then mash them finely.

  3. Add a pinch of salt and a little milk to the mashed potatoes to make them moist.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter, eggs, and sugar until light.

  2. Gradually add the mashed potatoes to the butter mixture, whisking the eggs until thick, stirring in gradually.

  3. Add the brandy and rose-water.

  4. Mix all well together.

  5. Set aside in a cool place for a while.

Bake and serve

  1. Line plates with a nice paste, fill, and bake in a quick oven.

  2. Optionally substitute nutmeg or cinnamon for the rose-water.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

390Calories
11 gProtein
17 gFat
50 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Brandynot in our table0
Puddingnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

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.

  1. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + sweet potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,151 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to add richness and a light, tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps beat air into the butter for lightness.
Eggs
Thicken the filling on baking and give it structure and body.
Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk, moisture and body of the pudding filling.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the mashed potatoes to the butter mixture. Adding the potatoes too quickly can cause the butter and egg mixture to separate or loosen, so they should be added gradually while mixing until the batter is smooth and well combined.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, brandy, egg):

  1. Sweet potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, brandy, egg. 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.

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