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Dessert

Sweet Potatoes and Apples Glaced

A baked dish of sweet potatoes and apples glazed with butter, maple syrup, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Sweet Potatoes and Apples Glaced

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In a buttered baking dish, arrange alternate rows of sweet potatoes and apple rings, with apple rings on top.

  2. Dot the top with butter and pour several tablespoons of maple syrup and a tablespoon of sherry over it.

  3. Bake until done, basting every 10 minutes.

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. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Sweet potato + maple syruptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + maple syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

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

  4. Sweet potato + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provides a soft, starchy body that soaks up the glaze as it bakes.
Apples
Hold their shape while adding tart contrast to the sweet syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Maple syrup
Sweetens the dish and caramelizes on the surface as it bakes.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a sharp note that balances the sweet glaze.

The step that matters

Basting every 10 minutes. Sugars in the maple syrup can scorch before the apples and potatoes are cooked through. Regular basting spreads the syrup and butter over the surface, keeping it moist and evenly glazed rather than dry or burnt in patches.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, maple syrup, sherry):

  1. Sweet potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Potatofits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, maple syrup, sherry. 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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