Freelance food writer Lesley Porcelli of Syracuse, N.Y., said that during colonial times, Southerners learned how to prepare sweet potatoes by watching “native people bury them in the embers of fires and then peel away the skin to eat the smoky flesh.”
Throughout the colonial era, sweet potatoes were a staple in the South.”
“I learned from several old recipes the trick of boiling them in their skins, after which the flesh slides easily from the peels. Still, boiling the potatoes whole means the narrower ends and the centers cook unevenly,” Porcelli said.
“Roasting the sweet potatoes in their skins eliminates that problem and has the added benefit of intensifying their sweetness.”
“Many Southern recipes recommend rubbing the skins first with butter or bacon fat, which certainly adds richness and flavor. But simply scrubbing the skins clean and pricking them all over produces excellent results.”
“Ninety minutes (in the oven) at 425 degrees yields tender, sweet flesh that slips right out of the skin (though you might find that very large potatoes need a little bit more time),” Porcelli said.
If you are determined to
make a sweet potato casserole, Porcelli strongly suggests ditching the
marshmallows and adding eggs and topping with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter,
oats, pecans, maple syrup and chunks of salty bacon.
Sweet potato pie is a Carteret County delicacy
Sweet potato pie “is the fuel that has fired North Carolina’s tremendous fishing industry all these years, suggests Liz Biro, a contributor to the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s online newsletter.
It’s how Carteret County’s commercial fishermen began their day, “oftentimes before sunrise,” Biro said, eating their “humble sweet potato pie” for breakfast.
“A slice was not nearly enough sustenance for the tough labors of setting nets, raking clams or hauling fish by the hundreds of pounds to market. These men drank what amounted to soup bowls full of hot coffee with not two or even three slices of sweet potato pie,” she said.
“They folded entire pies in half and ate them like breakfast sandwiches.”
Biro commented: “Sweet potatoes thrived in gardens in coastal North Carolina and on its barrier islands where fishermen lived. Sweet potatoes flourished in the coast’s hot, moist climate and sandy soils. Growers appreciated the plant’s lack of natural enemies.”
Clearly a Southern favorite food, sweet potato pies are “simple affairs of mashed sweet potatoes, milk, eggs and spices, providing plenty of protein from the milk and eggs and big doses of vitamin A and beta-carotene from the sweet potatoes.”
Some bakers prefer to use canned evaporated milk or “sweet milk” (canned sweetened condensed milk), Biro said, “as that is the milk their ancestors relied upon in the days when fresh milk and cream were not readily available.”
“No matter the recipe,
cooks agree that perfect sweet potato pie is a balance of creaminess, sweetness
and spices against a sturdy, savory crust,” she said. “The filling is so smooth
no whipped cream garnish is required.”
No comments:
Post a Comment