Name: Mock Sweet Potato
Ingredients: 2 cups mashed Irish potatoes; ½ cup milk; ½ cup melted butter; ½ cup sifted flour; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; ⅓ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mock Sweet Potato

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Run the mashed potatoes through a colander.

Mix and bake

In a bowl, mix the potatoes, milk, melted butter, sifted flour, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.
Beat the eggs separately, then add them to the mixture and combine well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Mashed irish potatoes: Provide the bulk and body of the casserole.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Flour: Adds structure and helps thicken the mixture.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Milk: Adds moisture and makes the mixture smoother.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning in the oven.

Swap the potato

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

Sweet potatofits better
Arrowrootfits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, egg, sugar, 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.