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Sweet-potato Custard Pie

A custard pie made with sweet potatoes, milk, butter, and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 539 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Sweet-potato Custard Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Parboil the sweet potatoes for 30 minutes; set aside to cool.

  2. Once cool, peel and grate the sweet potatoes.

Make the filling

  1. Beat together the butter, soft sugar, and egg yolks until very light.

  2. Gradually add the grated sweet potatoes while stirring continuously.

  3. Mix in the milk, brandy, orange rind and juice, and cinnamon.

Line and bake the pie

  1. Line a deep pie dish with Good Plain Paste, building up the edges with extra layers and notching them neatly.

  2. Fill the crust with the sweet potato mixture and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the sifted powdered sugar while beating.

  2. Continue beating until the mixture is stiff and glossy.

  3. Heap the meringue on top of the baked pie, sift a little granulated sugar over it, and place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 2 minutes until slightly browned, watching carefully to prevent scorching.

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. Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sweet potato + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together191 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the custard filling.
Eggs
Help the filling set and give the meringue its foam structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the custard filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Soft sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it hold a glossy texture.

The step that matters

Browning the meringue. Sugar on the meringue browns quickly in the hot oven and can scorch within minutes. Beating the whites until stiff and glossy first lets the foam hold its shape and brown evenly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, butter, milk, sugar, brandy, egg, cinnamon. 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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