Skip to main content
Dessert

Potato Pie

A sweet potato-based pie with butter, sugar, eggs, lemon, nutmeg, mace, baked in pastry shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light.

  2. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, nutmeg, and mace, mixing well.

  3. Gradually beat in the mashed potato until very light.

  4. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the potato mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the prepared pie shells with the mixture.

  2. Bake until set and golden, then let cool before serving.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potato
Provides the bulk and body of the filling, giving a soft, custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, creating a tender, smooth texture when creamed with sugar.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the creamed butter hold air for a lighter texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the filling, while whipped whites add lift and lightness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that gives lightness; overmixing deflates them, leaving a dense pie. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

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

More potato pie recipes

Sweet 114Irish 16Crust 10Lemon 7Southern Sweet 5 See all 98 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesDeep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes