Southern Sweet Potato Recipes (1906)

The Little Potato Peeler by Albert Anker (1886) Link

Southern Ways of Cooking A Southern Vegetable

By Anne McQueen

From The Delineator, January 1906

To us of the South...the sweet potato is the staff of life from digging-time in the Autumn till planting time in the Summer. I have just dined with some of our new neighbors--settlers from the North--and they served our favorite yams boiled, and ate them with salt and pepper! They are nice people, and they had a good dinner, with a heap of French dishes--consommés and souffles and frappes, which we simple country folk regarded with admiring awe--but they don't know the first principle of cooking a sweet potato.

That those who are unenlightened may know the possibilities contained in them, I will give some "native" ways of cooking potatoes. If you are camping out or picnicking, there is no better way than to "roas' 'em in de san' " and eat them with ham gravy.

Children of Sharecroppers With Sweet Potatoes Photo by Russell Lee (1938) (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Ordinarily, we bake them--unpeeled, of course--till they are soft and wrinkled, with candied juice breaking through the skins. To steam or boil them is wasting the Lord's good gifts. Eat them with butter or gravy, or without as you choose, but for goodness sake don't pepper and salt them!

The soft, sweet yellow varieties are best for baking; the dry white kinds for frying or making custards, etc. To fry potatoes, pare and slice rather thin, dropping the slices in salted water; fry well covered in boiling lard, turning frequently till well done. Serve hot--cold fried potatoes are an abomination. Some other ways of cooking them--time-honored Southern ways--are:

Mrs. Adams, Wife of Farmer Near Morganza, Louisiana Preparing Sweet Potatoes for Dinner Photo by Russell Lee (1938) (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

 

POTATO CUSTARD--One pound potato, same quantity each of butter, sugar and eggs, allspice to flavor. Use half or a quarter of this if you wish, only use the "pound for pound" proportions. Boil, peel, mash through colander, and weigh potato, cream, butter and sugar and mix with it, then add egg yolks well beaten; flavor with spice or any extract you prefer. Add the egg whites beaten stiff and mix well; have your pie-plates lined with good puff paste, pour in the mixture about an inch thick, or less if you like, and bake. Eat cold.

POTATO PUDDING--Two cupfuls grated potato (raw), one cupful sugar, one cupful milk, three eggs, tablespoonful butter, any flavor you like. Set the frying-pan on the back of the hot stove and melt the butter in it. Mix the ingredients together--eggs well beaten--and pour into the hot frying-pan; cook slowly on top of the stove, breaking up the crust as soon as it forms, and stirring it through the pudding. Continue to do this till it is done, which will take about an hour. Eat with whipped cream, or "dry so."

SLICED POTATO PIE--Line the inside of a baking-pan with good pie paste, then pour in a layer of cold sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced; sprinkle thickly with sugar, bits of butter and a little cinnamon-stick. Add another layer, more sugar and butter, and cover with hot water, and half a cupful of good wine; or if preferred, a tablespoonful of good white vinegar. Cover with an upper crust, spread with butter, sugar, and a sprinkling of cinnamon, and bake. This has juice enough without extra sauce.

Illustration by Louis M. Glackens, from Puck (1903)