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Another Way to Make Sweet Potatoes Delicious
Prepare them as above with sugar and butter. Add one cup of old-fashioned walnuts, one-fourth cup of Sherry wine and put in baking dish. One cup of raisins may also be added. Serve in baking dish with meat course. Marshmallow on top makes a lovely meringue.
A variation rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes the candied sweet potatoes given just before it, boiled and peeled potatoes dressed with sugar and butter, then baked. Everything here is an addition to that base.
- The base dishWilson's "as above" points back to the preceding candied sweet potatoes: potatoes cooked and peeled, then dressed with sugar and butter and baked. Her proportions are not repeated here, so work from that recipe rather than guessing. Without that foundation the additions have nothing to cling to.
- OvenMrs. Wilson gives no temperature. A moderate oven, in the region of 375F for 25 to 30 minutes, is a reasonable modern reading: bake until the sugar and butter have combined into a syrup and the edges of the potatoes are caramelizing.
- "Old-fashioned walnuts"Most likely the native black walnut rather than the imported English walnut then dominating the market, though the phrase is not used consistently in period books. Black walnuts are stronger, almost resinous, and hold up against the sugar; English walnuts will disappear into it.
- The sherryA quarter cup is enough to perfume the dish, and it should go in before baking so the alcohol cooks off and the sugars concentrate. A dry or medium sherry works better here than a cream sherry against an already sweet base.
- Marshmallow toppingAdd it only in the last few minutes, or run the finished dish under a broiler for 60 to 90 seconds. Marshmallow left in a hot oven for the full bake will liquefy and then scorch.
- RaisinsOptional in the original and worth treating that way. With sugar, sherry, marshmallow and a full cup of raisins the dish stops being a vegetable and becomes dessert alongside the roast.
- YieldWith these additions the dish will stretch to six or eight as a side, depending on the quantity of potatoes in the base recipe. It is served in its baking dish, so choose one presentable enough to go to the table.
Mrs. Wilson's book appeared around 1920, the first year of national Prohibition, which makes the casual quarter cup of sherry a small period marker. The dish itself belongs to the American habit, well established by the turn of the century, of pushing sweet potatoes ever further toward confectionery, with sugar, butter, dried fruit and nuts. The marshmallow finish is the youngest element here: commercially manufactured marshmallows were available in the United States well before 1900 and were being promoted hard by the 1910s, and the sweet-potato casserole crowned with them spread through cookbooks and manufacturers' pamphlets in that decade. Mrs. Wilson calls it a meringue, which is what it visually replaced.