Name: Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; ¾ pound sugar; 5 eggs; 2 tablespoons brandy; 2 tablespoons rose-water (or nutmeg/cinnamon); 1 pound sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed; a pinch of salt; a little milk

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the butter, sugar, and eggs until light.
Gradually add the mashed sweet potatoes, mixing well.
Whisk the eggs until thick and stir them in gradually.
Add the brandy and rose-water, mixing everything together.
Set the mixture aside in a cool place for a while.
Line your plates with pastry, fill with the mixture, and bake.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together560 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sweet potato + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together596 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Swap the sweet potato

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

Sweet potatothe original
Potatofits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Arrowrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, brandy, rose, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.