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Sweet Potatoes, a LA Province

A baked dish of sliced sweet potatoes layered with butter, milk, bread crumbs, cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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, a LA Province

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice raw sweet potatoes thin and lay them in a dish with bits of butter.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then pour over enough milk to cover the potatoes.

Bake

  1. Wet bread crumbs in cream, add a beaten egg, and pour over the top.

  2. Bake until done.

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Sweet potato + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw sweet potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and soften into a tender, creamy layer as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and keeps the potatoes moist.
Milk
Provides liquid that gently cooks the potatoes and forms a custard-like sauce.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the cream and egg mixture, forming a crisp, browned topping.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, helping the topping set smoothly and taste lush.
Egg
Binds the topping mixture so it sets rather than staying loose.

The step that matters

Bake until done. The egg in the topping sets as it heats, so the casserole is done when the topping is firm and the potatoes are tender. Underbaking leaves a loose, soupy center, while overbaking can dry the dish and toughen the egg.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, milk, bread, cream, egg. 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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