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Caramel Potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
⅓ cup light brown sugar
6 medium sized sweet
¼ cup nut meats
Milk potatoes
Seasoning
Wash and boil potatoes, drain and peel; add two tablespoons butter, seasoning and a little hot milk. Mash and beat until very light. Place balance of butter and sugar in thick aluminum spider; when dissolved, add nuts and potatoes.
Bake in a moderate oven until well set. Turn onto a hot plate with caramel side on top.
The ingredient list has been scrambled by the original two-column typesetting. Read it as: 4 tablespoons butter, ⅓ cup light brown sugar, 6 medium sweet potatoes, ¼ cup nut meats, milk, and seasoning.
- The hingeThe butter and sugar must melt to a smooth caramel before the potato goes in, and the pan should come off the heat as soon as it does. Brown sugar scorches quickly in a thin pan, and a burnt caramel will flavour the whole dish.
- "Spider"A spider was originally a long-handled, legged skillet for hearth cooking; in American usage the word came to be applied to a heavy frying pan generally. Use a 9- or 10-inch cast-iron or heavy oven-safe skillet — the caramel needs a pan that will not develop hot spots.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F. Something in the range of twenty to thirty minutes should be enough for the mash to set firm at the edges and the caramel to bubble up around it; the recipe gives no time, only "until well set."
- Sweet potatoes"Sweet potatoes" here means the orange-fleshed kind sold in many American markets as yams. Boil them whole in their skins so they do not waterlog, then peel while hot.
- Milk and seasoning"A little hot milk" is 2 to 4 tablespoons — just enough to loosen the mash, which should stay stiff enough to hold a shape. Seasoning means salt and pepper; a scrape of nutmeg is period-appropriate.
- Nut meatsPecans or walnuts, coarsely broken. Toasting them first in the dry pan before the butter goes in improves them considerably and costs nothing.
- Turning outRun a knife around the edge and invert onto a warmed plate while everything is still hot; caramel that has cooled will cement itself to the pan. Serves six as a side dish.
This is a candied sweet potato in reverse — instead of basting slices in syrup, the potato is mashed and set over a caramel that becomes a glazed top when the pan is turned out, in the manner of a tarte Tatin or an upside-down cake. Sweet potatoes cooked with sugar and butter are a long-standing American habit, and they are often said to have been the expected accompaniment to roast pork, ham and holiday poultry. One detail that suggests a period is "thick aluminum spider": aluminium cookware was still relatively new in the early decades of the twentieth century, while the old hearth word for the pan itself had not yet dropped out of use.