Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
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.
Make the filling
Boil the sweet potato until tender, then mash it until very smooth.
While the potato is hot, add the butter and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then fold them into the potato mixture.
Add the sugar, milk, lemon rind, lemon juice, rum, wine, and nutmeg, mixing until well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rum + winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Sweet potato + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together314 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together967 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,007 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet potato
- Forms the body of the pudding and gives it a smooth, thick texture.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding its structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the custard-like filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs thicken as they heat and set into a firm custard. Underbaking leaves the filling loose and wet, while overbaking can make it dry and grainy.
Swap the sweet potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, milk, lemon, rum, wine):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Sweet potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, milk, lemon, rum, wine. 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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