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Dessert

Sweet Potato FUSBDrO

A baked pie of mashed sweet potato, butter, sugar, eggs, wine, brandy and spices in a pastry-lined plate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and nutmeg 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 FUSBDrO

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the mashed sweet potato in two parts, mixing well.

  4. Whisk the eggs until thick, then gradually stir them into the mixture.

  5. Add the wine, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mix well.

  6. Let the mixture sit in a cool place for a short time.

Bake and serve

  1. Line your plates with a rich pastry, rolling it thinner in the center than at the edges.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined plates and bake until done.

  3. Allow to cool before serving.

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. Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 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

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a tender, smooth texture.
Eggs
Thicken and set the filling as it bakes, giving it structure.
Sweet potato
Forms the body of the filling and adds moisture and natural sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Baking until done. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny and overbaking can make it curdle or crack. Cooling lets the custard firm up fully before slicing.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Sweet potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

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

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