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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, butter, sugar, mashed sweet potato, brandy, lemon, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 314 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the softened butter and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the mashed sweet potato until the mixture thickens.

  4. Stir in the brandy, lemon juice, lemon rind, and spices if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep buttered dish.

  2. Bake until set and lightly browned, then let cool.

  3. Serve chilled.

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. Sweet potato + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together314 recipes

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

  2. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sugar + sweet potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,151 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to light browning on the surface.
Sweet potato
Provides the bulk, moisture and body of the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, boozy flavour that complements the sweet potato.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly browned. Egg proteins coagulate as the pudding heats; underbaking leaves it loose and wet, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery. Look for a firm centre and light colour before cooling.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, brandy, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatothe original
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, brandy, lemon. 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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