Name: Yams, Baked
Ingredients: small yams; butter; pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Yam and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 111 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Yams, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

small yams
butter
pepper
coarse sea salt

Directions

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

Wash the yams and cut a slice off one side.
Replace the slice and bake the yams in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Once done, remove the slice and scrape the inside out with a fork.
Add a little butter, pepper, and salt, then beat it up with a fork.
Serve in a dish or put it back in the shell.

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.

Yam + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together111 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Yam + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together103 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).