Name: Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; 4 well-beaten eggs; 1 quart sweet milk; 1 pint sweet potatoes; Sugar to taste

Why it works: Nutmeg and sweet potato 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 ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

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

Boil and mash the sweet potatoes.

Mix and bake

While still hot, add the butter, nutmeg, eggs, sweet milk, and sugar.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the pudding is firm and brown.

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.

Nutmeg + sweet potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + sweet potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together596 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set the custard so the pudding turns firm when baked.
Sweet potatoes: Provide the bulk, starch and moisture that form the pudding's body.
Sweet milk: Adds liquid and richness, and helps the pudding set into a smooth texture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Bake until firm and brown. Eggs set as they heat, so the pudding must bake until firm in the centre; underbaking leaves it loose, while the surface browns through sugar and milk proteins as it cooks.

Swap the sweet potato

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

Sweet potatothe original
Potatofits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg, egg, milk, sugar. 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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Sweet Potato Pudding