Skip to main content
Dessert

Potato Pudding

A baked sweet potato custard made with eggs, sugar, lemon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the potato base

  1. Boil the potatoes, then while hot, rub them through a sieve.

  2. Melt the butter or dripping and mix it with the potatoes; let cool.

  3. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

Make the mixture

  1. Whisk the yolks, then add grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar; mix well with the potatoes.

  2. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold into the potato mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Turn out onto a dish and serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and moist, soft body of the pudding.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind; whites whipped to stiff foam give the pudding lift and a light texture.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to browning in the oven.
Lemon
Rind and juice add aroma and a bright, acidic note that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped until stiff hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense result.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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

More sweet potato pudding recipes

Carolina 3 See all 116 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesDeep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes