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Dessert

A Richer Potato Pudding

A sweet potato pudding flavored with brandy, lemon rind, and candied citrus, topped with clarified butter and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Richer 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 oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the pudding

  1. Beat mashed potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon rind, and salt until well combined.

  2. Stir in brandy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour mixture into a well‑buttered dish or mold, and decorate the top with slices of candied orange or lemon rind.

  2. Drizzle clarified butter on top and sprinkle generously with white sugar.

  3. Bake for 40 minutes or until set.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Potato + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and body that the pudding sets around.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the top brown when baked.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor that comes through the sweet, rich base.

The step that matters

Bake for 40 minutes or until set. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding loose and overbaking makes it dry and grainy. Check that the centre is firm rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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