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Dessert

Cream of Sweet Potatoes, for Pies

A sweet potato cream used as a filling for pies, made with eggs, butter, macaroons, and optional lemon or rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cream of Sweet Potatoes, for Pies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the sweet potatoes

  1. Boil or steam the sweet potatoes until three-quarters done.

  2. Transfer them to a pan and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until fully cooked.

  3. Peel the cooked sweet potatoes and pass them through a colander.

Make the cream

  1. Add the eggs, egg yolks, butter, salt, macaroons, lemon flavor or rum, and sugar to the sweet potatoes, then mix everything together until well combined.

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

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

  3. Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,151 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 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

Sweet potatoes
Form the bulk of the cream, providing body, moisture and mild sweetness.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set and hold its shape.
Egg yolks
Add richness and smoothness, and help the cream bind.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and mouthfeel.
Macaroons
Add body and almond-like flavor while absorbing moisture from the purée.

The step that matters

Passing the cooked sweet potatoes through a colander. Pushing the potatoes through a colander breaks down fibers and lumps, giving a smooth, even texture. Lumps left in the purée will show in the finished cream.

Swap the sweet potato

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

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

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