Name: Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound sweet potatoes, grated; ½ cup molasses; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons sugar; milk, enough to make a thin mixture; 1 teaspoon ginger; spice to taste

Why it works: Sweet potato and ginger work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 306 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the grated sweet potatoes, molasses, beaten eggs, butter, sugar, and enough milk to create a thin mixture. Add ginger and spices to taste.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 1.5 hours.

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 + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together306 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sweet potato + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together596 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 pudding and give it its body and moisture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Milk: Thins the mixture to a pourable batter and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Thin the mixture with milk before baking. Grated sweet potato thickens as it sits and the eggs set during baking. Enough liquid keeps the pudding moist and smooth instead of dense or dry.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, molasses, egg, butter, sugar, milk. 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.

More sweet potato pudding recipes

Carolina 3 See all 116 →

Ginger Cookies213 recipes

Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Ginger Cake93 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Sweet Potato Pudding