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To Bake Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes may be baked like white potatoes; or they may be cooked in this manner: Boil in water until they can be easily punctured with a fork; then drain, remove the skin, divide into halves lengthwise, dust with salt and sugar, roll in melted butter; place in a dripping pan and bake in a hot oven until a rich brown crust is formed. After sweet potatoes have been parboiled and peeled, they may be put in the roasting pan with chicken, turkey, beef, veal or other meats and thus baked. Sweet potatoes are improved in flavor by being thoroughly cooked.
A straightforward two-stage method: parboil, then roast hard enough to build a crust. The only real variable is the oven.
- "A hot oven"In turn-of-the-century terms roughly 400-450F. At that heat the sugared, buttered halves should brown in something like 20-30 minutes; turn them once so both cut faces caramelize.
- Don't overboilDoneness -- the recipe asks for potatoes boiled until "easily punctured with a fork," about 15-20 minutes for medium ones. Stop short of falling apart: potatoes boiled to complete softness collapse when halved and steam rather than crust in the oven.
- PeelingThe skins slip off with a paring knife or even a paper towel while the potatoes are still hot. Let them cool a minute or two first.
- Dripping panA shallow roasting or sheet pan. Give the halves space; crowded potatoes trap steam and stay pale.
- Salt and sugarThe recipe specifies only "sugar"; brown sugar suits the dish and browns faster. A light dusting is enough, as many widely grown modern cultivars are sweeter and moister than the drier, starchier types then common.
- Roasting with meatThe second method works best in the last 30-40 minutes of a roast, set where they can sit in the fat and drippings. Add them too early and they turn to mush.
- YieldFigure one medium potato (roughly 5-6 oz) per person, or two halves each.
Sweet potatoes were a staple of American cookery long before this book appeared, and by 1900 they were often cooked alongside a roast — parboiled and finished with the joint or the bird. The technique of boiling first and browning after is a practical response to the vegetable's density: it will not cook through in the time a roast needs, but it will glaze beautifully once softened. The final line, that sweet potatoes "are improved in flavor by being thoroughly cooked," reflects something cooks understood by experience and food science later explained — prolonged gentle heating lets the potato's own enzymes convert starch to sugar, which is why a slow-baked sweet potato tastes markedly sweeter than a quickly boiled one.