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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pie

A baked pie made with eggs, sweet potatoes, syrup, milk, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Add syrup, milk, and sweet potatoes to the eggs and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cloves, nutmeg or mace, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.

  4. Add the dry mixture to the sweet potato mixture and stir until combined.

Bake

  1. Line a pie pan with flaky pastry and pour the mixture into the pan.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F) for the first 8 to 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to moderate (350°F) and continue baking until the pie is firm.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and set it into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk, body and earthy flavour of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly at the edges.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the filling so it bakes smooth.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture while deepening the filling's flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until firm. Eggs set as they heat, so the pie must bake until the centre is firm, not just the edges. Stopping early leaves a runny filling, while overbaking can cause cracking or weeping. The initial hot oven starts the set, and the lower temperature finishes it gently.

“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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