Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Steam the sweet potatoes until tender.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pie pan with the pastry and bake it for a few minutes until lightly golden.
Slice the sweet potatoes thinly and layer them in the pie crust.
Make the syrup and bake
In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, whisky (or wine), water, cinnamon, and allspice to make a syrup.
Pour the syrup over the first layer of sweet potatoes, then add another layer of sweet potatoes and more syrup on top.
Bake the pie until set, similar to a custard, or cover it and bake as an old-fashioned sweet potato pie.
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.
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together539 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sweet potato + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together105 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 filling, becoming soft and tender as they cook and absorb the syrup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps it caramelise and brown slightly in the oven.
- Whisky or wine
- Adds aroma and a subtle depth of flavour to the syrup.
The step that matters
Bake the pie until set. Sweet potato filling with eggs or starch-free syrup sets as it cools; underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make it dry or cause the crust to darken too much.
Swap the sweet potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, whisky, cinnamon, allspice):
- Sweet potatothe original
- Mustardfits about as well
- Capsicumfits less well
- Shallotfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, whisky, cinnamon, allspice. 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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