Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) were enormously popular in
sixteenth-century Europe, especially England. Sir Francis Drake wrote:
"These potatoes be the most delicate rootes that may be eaten and doe
farre exeed our passeneps or carets. Their pines be of the bignes of two
fists, the outside whereof is of the making of a pine-apple, but it is
soft like the rinde of a cocomber, and the inside eateth like an apple
but it is more delicious than any sweet apple sugred." An apocryphal
belief in the sweet potato's aphrodisiacal gifts did not hinder its
consumption.
Africans in the South knew the yam (Dioscorea alata) from their
homeland and the two tubers have become virtually interchangeable in
Southern cooking. Most Southern sweet potato recipes have been developed
by blacks from their traditional cuisine, but this pie with its spices
and sherry would have been at home on Henry VIII's royal board.
3/4 c. lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 Tb. molasses
1 1/2 c. mashed, cooked sweet potatoes
2/3 c. half-and-half
2 eggs, separated
6 Tb. dry sherry
1 partially baked 9-inch pie shell
Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add molasses and sweet potatoes;
beat well. Stir in half-and-half, egg yolks, and sherry. Beat the whites
until stiff, fold in, and pour into the partially baked pie shell. Put
in an oven preheated to 425° F. Immediately reduce heat to 375° F.
and bake about 35 minutes, until the pie is nicely browned and set in
the middle. Serve warm or cold and with whipped or Soured Cream.
6-8 slices
Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie