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Sweet Potatoes En Casserole

A baked sweet potato casserole with butter, brown sugar, salt, water, and optional sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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.

Boil the potatoes

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

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

  3. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with salted boiling water.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, then drain the potatoes.

Assemble

  1. Layer the potatoes in a casserole dish.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with salt, bits of butter, and brown sugar.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of sherry on top.

  4. Cover the casserole.

Bake

  1. Bake in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes until 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 bulk of the dish and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when baked.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and melts with the potato juices to form a thick syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the potatoes taste rounded.

The step that matters

Cover the casserole before baking. The covered dish traps steam, keeping the potatoes moist while they cook so the sugar dissolves into a syrup instead of drying or scorching on top.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  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, sugar, sherry. 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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