Why it works: Sweet potato and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 539 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Sweet Potato Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and boil the sweet potatoes in their jackets until tender.
Drain, remove the skins, and wash the potatoes again.
Season the potatoes with salt, pepper, cream, and a dash of cinnamon.
Shape the mixture into cones.
Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.
Serve on a garnished platter.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together539 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,890 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sweet potato + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21,449 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sweet potato + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together301 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 (pepper, cream, cinnamon):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Sweet potatothe original
- Carrotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cream, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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