Name: Candied Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients: sweet potatoes; sugar; butter; syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

sweet potatoes
sugar
butter
syrup

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Oil, skin, and slice enough sweet potatoes to fill a pudding dish.
Layer sweet potatoes in the bottom of the dish.
Sprinkle a light layer of sugar over the potatoes, add bits of butter, and a little syrup.
Repeat layering until the dish is full.
Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until rich brown.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,151 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sweet potato + buttertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,491 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sweet potato + syruptop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together59 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).