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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pudding

A baked sweet potato pudding made with butter, powdered sugar, eggs, spices, lemon, rose water, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash half a pound of sweet potatoes and place them in a pot with a small amount of water, just enough to prevent burning.

  2. Simmer the potatoes slowly for about half an hour, ensuring they are only parboiled.

  3. When the potatoes are half done, remove them, peel them, and let them cool.

  4. Grate the cooled potatoes.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated potatoes with half a pound of butter, a quarter pound, and two ounces of powdered sugar.

  2. Add grated nutmeg, a large teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, and half a teaspoon of beaten mace.

  3. Add the juice and grated peel of a lemon, a wineglass of rose water, a glass of wine, and a glass of brandy.

  4. Stir all ingredients together thoroughly.

  5. Beat eight eggs lightly and gradually stir them into the mixture, a little at a time.

  6. Once fully mixed, pour the batter into a buttered dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for three quarters of an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

408Calories
11 gProtein
18 gFat
53 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Macenot 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 Eliza Leslie. 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the main starchy body and bulk of the pudding once grated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender, smooth texture.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the mixture and give it structure.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs lightly and stir them in gradually. Adding eggs a little at a time and mixing well keeps the batter smooth and evenly combined, so the eggs set uniformly rather than curdling or leaving lumps.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sweet potato, butter, 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.

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