Why it works: Sweet potato and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 414 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Sweet-potato Pudding
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 potato
Boil the sweet potato until thoroughly done.
Mash the boiled sweet potato finely.
While the potato is hot, add the sugar and then the butter.
Set aside to cool.
Make the filling
Beat the eggs until light.
Add the seasoning last.
Bake and serve
Line tin plates with puff pastry.
Pour the mixture into the lined plates.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Remove the pudding from the oven.
Cover the top with thinly sliced preserved citron or quince marmalade.
Strew the top thickly with granulated white sugar.
Serve with a glass of rich milk for each person.
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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Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sweet potato + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together314 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet potato
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and gives it a soft, moist body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown when it is sprinkled on before serving.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding its structure.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
- Strong wine or brandy
- Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until set. The eggs must coagulate to firm the filling. Underbaking leaves a runny centre, while overbaking can make the eggs curdle and weep liquid.
Swap the sweet potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, wine, nutmeg, lemon, egg):
- Shallotfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Sweet potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, wine, nutmeg, lemon, egg. 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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