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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, butter, sugar, spices, rose water, cream, and mashed sweet potato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs until very light.

  3. Add the creamed butter, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, rose water, and sweet cream; mix well.

  4. Gradually add the mashed sweet potato, stirring vigorously until combined.

Bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes.

  3. Alternatively, line a pie plate with puff pastry, pour in the pudding, and bake for 12 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + sweet potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Nutmeg + sweet potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender, smooth texture.
Granulated sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.
Sweet potato
Mashed sweet potato provides the main body, moisture and flavour of the pudding.
Sweet cream
Cream adds fat and moisture, giving a softer, richer custard texture.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs until very light. Beaten eggs trap air and add structure, so the pudding rises slightly and sets evenly. Under-beaten eggs can leave a dense, uneven texture.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, rose, cream):

  1. Sweet potatothe original
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, rose, cream. 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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