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Sweet Potatoes and Nuts

A fried cake made from sweet potatoes, nuts, butter, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sweet Potatoes and Nuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix sweet potatoes, nut meats, melted butter, beaten egg, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Press the mixture into a square mold and let it cool.

  3. Once cold, cut into slices.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each slice in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry until golden 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sweet potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together67 recipes

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

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body that holds the cakes together.
Nut meats
Add texture and richness that contrast with the soft sweet potato.
Melted butter
Adds fat for moisture and a rich flavour in the cakes.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm enough to slice.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool fully before slicing. Starch in the hot sweet potato sets as it cools, so the cakes firm up enough to hold their shape. Cutting while warm can make the slices crumble or smear.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, egg, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, egg, bread. 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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