Name: Sweet Potatoes, Southern Style
Ingredients: Southern sweet potatoes (or Northern sweet potatoes); granulated sugar; butter

Why it works: Sweet potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,151 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Potatoes, Southern Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Southern sweet potatoes (or Northern sweet potatoes)
granulated sugar
butter

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 the potatoes

Bake Southern sweet potatoes until tender, or boil and skin Northern sweet potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into thin slices.

Assemble and bake

Layer the slices in a baking dish, sprinkling each layer with granulated sugar and melted butter.
Add extra bits of butter on top.
Cover and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until clear and rich, uncovering halfway through.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,151 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sweet potato + buttertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,491 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes: Form the bulk of the dish, turning soft and tender as they cook through.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top and layers caramelize as the dish bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the slices and browning the top.