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Dessert

Sweet-potato Pudding

A baked pudding made with sweet potatoes, sugar, butter, eggs, spices, and citrus, served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Sweet-potato Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Peel and grate the sweet potatoes raw.

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then add to the butter and sugar along with all other ingredients. Mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pudding dish and fill it no more than halfway with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  3. Serve hot or cold with a sauce.

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. Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Sweet potato + orangetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together191 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body that gives the pudding its dense, moist crumb.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the mixture and give it structure and lift.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps with browning on the surface during baking.
Sherry
Adds liquid and a distinct wine-based aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Filling the dish no more than halfway. Eggs and grated sweet potato expand and rise as they bake. Leaving room in the dish prevents the mixture from overflowing and lets it cook evenly through to the centre.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, lemon, sugar, orange, butter, brandy, cinnamon. 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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