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Dessert

Marshmallow Sweet Potato Puff

A baked sweet potato dish layered with butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and marshmallows.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 539 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Marshmallow Sweet Potato Puff

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the sweet potatoes until tender, then remove the skin and beat until light using a perforated spoon.

  2. Add the melted butter and hot milk while beating the potatoes.

Layer and bake

  1. In a buttered baking dish, layer half of the sweet potato mixture.

  2. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over the first layer.

  3. Add half of the quartered marshmallows on top.

  4. Repeat the layers with the remaining sweet potato mixture, sugar, cinnamon, and marshmallows.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned delicately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk of the soft, starchy body that makes up the puff.
Marshmallows
Melt during baking to add sweetness and a gooey, browned topping.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the potato mixture for a smoother texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel notes as it heats with the potatoes.
Milk
Adds moisture so the beaten potatoes become light and spreadable.

The step that matters

Beating the potatoes until light. Potatoes must be fully tender and beaten while still hot with butter and milk. Cold or lumpy potatoes stay dense and do not whip into a light, even puff.

“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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