Why it works: Sweet potato and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 414 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Boil the sweet potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Make and bake the pudding
Add the mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, grated nutmeg, and lemon juice. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into a prepared crust in a baking dish.
Bake for 45-60 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
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.
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.
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Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sweet potato + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together314 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard-like filling so it firms up as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and creaming with sugar traps air for a lighter texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps the butter cream into a light, fluffy base.
- Sweet potatoes
- Form the bulk of the filling and give it body, sweetness and moisture.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and sugar.
The step that matters
Bake until set and lightly browned. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling loose and wet in the middle, while overbaking can make it dry and cracked. Check for a firm centre and light browning rather than relying only on the timer.
Swap the sweet potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg, lemon):
- Shallotfits about as well
- Sweet potatothe original
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg, lemon. 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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