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Yams, Baked

Baked yams served with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Yam and pepper work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 111 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Wash and dry the yams.

  2. Bake them in a 400°F (200°C) oven until soft.

  3. Serve on a folded napkin with butter, salt, and pepper.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Yam + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together85,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Yam + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Yams
Form the main body of the dish; baking softens their starchy flesh until tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that melts into the hot flesh, adding moisture and flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until soft. Yams are ready only when the starch inside has fully softened. Pulling them early leaves a firm, chalky center, while the oven's dry heat also sets a skin that needs to be dried first so it can crisp rather than steam.

“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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