Name: Kentucky Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: 1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated; 3 eggs; 1 cup sugar; ¼ cup flour; 1½ pints sweet milk; spice (to taste); mace (to taste); a little salt; ½ egg-sized piece of butter

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Kentucky Sweet Potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the pudding

Grate the peeled sweet potato and combine it with the eggs, sugar, flour, sweet milk, spice, mace, and salt.
Melt the butter and add it to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.

Bake

Bake until done, about 30-40 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sweet potato + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together627 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potato: Provides the main body and starchy bulk that gives the pudding its dense, sliceable texture.
Eggs: Set when baked, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface during baking.
Flour: Thickens the mixture and helps it hold together as it bakes.
Sweet milk: Supplies liquid that moistens the batter and cooks into a tender custard.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and a softer crumb.

Swap the mace

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Capersfits better
Macethe original

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