Name: Sweet-potato Pie, Philadelphia Style
Ingredients: Pastry for pie crust; 2 cups sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed; 4 cups milk; 4 tablespoons butter, melted; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; Sugar to taste

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 Pie, Philadelphia Style

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

Prepare the pastry according to your preferred recipe and line pie plates with it.
In a bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes, milk, melted butter, beaten eggs, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pie plates.

Bake and serve

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the pies are light brown.
Serve hot or cold.

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 + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes: Provide the main bulk and creamy, moist body of the filling.
Eggs: Set the filling into a sliceable custard as they cook.
Milk: Adds liquid and richness that gives the filling a smooth, custard-like texture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth mouthfeel in the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Egg-thickened fillings set as they heat, and overbaking can make them curdle, weep, or crack. Pull the pies once the filling is set and the crust is light brown.

“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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Sweet-potato Pie, Philadelphia Style