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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pie

A baked pie made from mashed sweet potatoes, sweet milk, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 Pie

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Peel the sweet potatoes and boil them until tender.

  2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes.

  3. Add 1 quart of sweet milk, 3 egg yolks, and 1 egg white to the mashed potatoes.

  4. Season with butter, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to taste.

Bake and top

  1. Line pans with good pastry and pour the mixture in.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until brown.

  3. Whip the 2 egg whites and spread them on top of the pie before finishing baking.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 filling and give it body and sweetness once mashed.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a firm, sliceable filling.
Egg white
Adds structure to the filling so it holds together when baked.
Sweet milk
Provides liquid that gives the filling a smooth, creamy, custard-like texture.
Whipped egg whites
Form a light topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking until brown. Egg-based fillings set as proteins coagulate with heat, and overbaking can make them curdle, weep, or turn rubbery. Watch for a set centre rather than relying on colour alone.

“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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