Name: Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients: 6 medium-sized sweet potatoes; 2 tablespoons melted butter; ½ cup hot sweet milk; 2 eggs, well beaten; sugar, to taste; grated lemon rind, to taste; nutmeg, to taste; brandy, to taste

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 ↓

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

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 the potatoes

Wash the sweet potatoes and bake them in a 350°F (175°C) oven until they begin to soften.
Cut a small piece from the end of each potato and scoop out the inside into a bowl.

Make the filling

Mash the sweet potato smooth and mix in the melted butter, hot sweet milk, and beaten eggs.
Sweeten with sugar and flavor with grated lemon rind, nutmeg, and brandy.

Stuff and serve

Stuff the potato skins with the mixture and return them to the oven to heat thoroughly.
Serve hot in the skins.

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.

Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sweet potato + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together314 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 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 potatoes: Form the bulk of the filling and hold the stuffed shells together.
Eggs: Bind the mashed filling and help it set lightly when heated.
Melted butter: Adds richness and moisture, making the filling smoother and softer.
Hot sweet milk: Adds moisture and loosens the mash so it spreads and fills smoothly.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, brandy):

Sweet potatothe original
Arrowrootfits about as well
Shallotfits about as well
Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, brandy. 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.