Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Mother's Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make and bake the pudding
In a large bowl, mix the grated sweet potatoes, milk, eggs, ground cloves, butter, ground spice, sugar, and salt until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven, stirring twice during baking, until the top is 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sweet potato + clovetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together228 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Sweet potato + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together596 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,151 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet potatoes
- Form the bulk of the pudding and give it body and a soft, moist texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that cooks into a smooth, tender pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the top brown during baking.
The step that matters
Bake until the top is browned. Stirring twice during baking keeps the starches and solids evenly distributed so the pudding sets uniformly. Judge doneness by the browned top and a set center, since the eggs firm the custard as it heats.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sweet potato, milk, egg, butter, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, milk, egg, butter, sugar. 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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