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Dessert

Candied Potatoes

Candied potatoes are sliced steamed potatoes cooked in butter, brown sugar, water, molasses, and cinnamon until the syrup thickens and the potatoes brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Candied Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the steamed potatoes into ½‑inch slices.

Make the syrup

  1. Add the butter, brown sugar, and enough water to form a syrup.

  2. Stir in the molasses (or cane syrup) and cinnamon.

Cook

  1. Cook slowly until the syrup thickens and the potatoes brown.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that absorbs the syrup and browns at the surface.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the syrup and helps it glaze the potatoes.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the syrup and contributes to thickening and browning as it cooks.
Molasses or cane syrup
Adds depth of flavour and extra sweetness, and helps the syrup stay glossy.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the syrup thickens and the potatoes brown. Sugar burns quickly at high heat, so a gentle cook lets the syrup reduce and thicken evenly while the sugars caramelise on the potato surfaces without turning bitter.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, 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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