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Sweet Potatoes En Casserole

A baked casserole of sweet potatoes with butter, sugar, salt, and optional sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Sweet Potatoes En Casserole

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Pare and cut the sweet potatoes in halves lengthwise.

  3. Boil the potatoes in salted water for five minutes, then drain.

  4. Melt the butter and pour it into a casserole dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the potatoes in the dish, sprinkling each layer with salt, bits of butter, and maple or brown sugar.

  2. Add two tablespoons of water and sherry (if using) on top.

  3. Cover and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are moist with a thick syrup.

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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,151 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sweet potato + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sweet potato + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, moist layer.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps keep the potatoes moist.
Maple or brown sugar
Sweetens the dish and, as it melts, forms the thick syrup around the potatoes.
Sherry
Adds a fragrant, slightly acidic flavor that rounds out the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cover and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Covering traps steam so the potatoes cook through gently and stay moist, while the sugar dissolves into a syrup. Checking for doneness near the end prevents the potatoes from drying out or the syrup from scorching.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Sweet potatothe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sherry, 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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