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Sweet Potatoes En Casserole
Parboil medium sized sweet potatoes, and, when a little soft, cut in halves, lengthwise and drain thoroughly. Melt three tablespoons of butter in casserole, put in a layer of sweet potatoes and sprinkle over them brown. sugar. Place another layer of potatoes over the first, dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar and a little salt. If this does not fill the dish, put in a third layer of potatoes. Cover the casserole, and place in a moderate oven. Test the potatoes with a fork, and, if tender they are done. They should not be dry, and, if they seem so, pour over them a little boiling water in which a tablespoon of butter and a little sugar have been melted. There should be a little syrup in the bottom of the dish when served.
A candied sweet potato that cooks covered rather than open, so it steams in its own butter and sugar. The whole point is the syrup at the bottom; everything else follows from keeping the dish covered.
- The casserole itselfThe casserole here is a covered dish; the instruction to melt butter in it suggests one that can take direct heat. A Dutch oven or a covered baking dish works; if yours cannot go on the burner, melt the butter separately and pour it in.
- Moderate ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; "moderate" is conventionally read as roughly 350-375F. Expect somewhere around 40 to 50 minutes covered for parboiled halves, testing with a fork as directed.
- Parboil, don't cook throughBoil only until a knife meets slight resistance, roughly 12 to 15 minutes for medium ones. Fully soft potatoes collapse into mush under the sugar and butter. The recipe says nothing about skins or peeling.
- Drain thoroughlyThis is the hinge. Water clinging to the potatoes dilutes the butter and sugar and you get a thin, cloudy liquid instead of syrup. Let them steam dry in the colander a few minutes before layering.
- Brown sugar quantityThe original gives none. About 1/2 to 2/3 cup total for two pounds of potatoes, divided between the layers, gives syrup without candy.
- Keep it coveredThe lid traps the steam that dissolves the sugar into syrup. If you want browned edges, take the lid off only for the last ten minutes.
- The rescue instructionThe water is specified boiling, with butter and a little sugar melted into it, so it does not drop the temperature of the dish. Add it a few tablespoons at a time.
- YieldThe original gives no quantities. Scaled to two pounds of sweet potatoes, this serves roughly four to six as a side.
The dish itself is the standard nineteenth-century candied sweet potato, sugar and butter and a little salt, moved off the stovetop and into a covered dish where it needs no watching. Sweet potatoes were cheap, stored well through winter in a cool cellar, and were long treated in American cooking as something between a vegetable and a sweet; the brown sugar treatment is the ancestor of the marshmallow-topped casserole that appeared on holiday tables somewhat later. Note that no spice is called for here, though spiced sweet potato dishes were common enough in the period.