One Potato, Two Potato

Sweet Potatoes © Rosalie E. Leposky

A Thanksgiving feast, unlike other family meals, may have two potato dishes - the common white potato (Solanum tuberosum, Solanaceae) and the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

Both were domesticated in prehistoric times, probably in Ecuador and Peru, and now are grown and consumed worldwide. China grows 117 millions tons of sweet potatoes, 90 percent of the world’s production. About 1.9 million tons of sweet potatoes are grown in Latin America, and 600 tons in the United States. North Carolina leads the U.S. in sweet potato production, with 33,000 acres devoted to this crop. Other states producing sweet potatoes include Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Texas.

We seldom think about seasonality with respect to sweet potatoes, but it is a factor. New sweet potatoes are available from September through June.

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, sweet potatoes are rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants. The AICR cautions, however, that the natural health value of sweet potatoes often is "overwhelmed" when they are used to prepare dishes with excessive amounts of butter, cream, and sweeteners.

Several other varieties of sweet potatoes also are sold in supermarkets around the nation: boniato (a favorite with immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America), yellow-fleshed and white-fleshed yams, and the Beauregard sweet potato.

Multiple Mashed Methods

The promotional term “Idaho potatoes” is not a specific kind of potato. About 50 varieties of common white potato grow in Idaho.

Several other northern states and Canadian provinces also grow white potatoes, and even Florida gets into the act, growing seed potatoes in the winter on drained Everglades muck land. White potatoes are planted on 1.2 million acres of U.S. farmland, and 16.1 million tons of white potatoes are harvested annually.

Many people prefer their white potatoes mashed, and mashed potatoes can be served many different ways. Some folks peel potatoes and mash them with lots of milk and butter. My favorite way is to mash the potatoes with their skin, flavor them with a little bit of milk and butter and a lot of the water in which the potatoes are steamed, and season with fresh pepper to taste.

I’m not alone.  The Idaho Potato Commission suggests that white potatoes be cooked with their skin on to preserve their abundant nutrition. Then, to capture the nutrients leached into the water during cooking, use the cooking water to moisten the mashed potatoes, and to make gravy.

A Favorite Sweet Potato Recipe

Many families have a favorite sweet potato recipe. Some like to mash sweet potatoes; others like to bake and serve them with butter. Sweet potato recipes are abundant in cookbooks and on the Web.

My family’s favorite, a twice-baked recipe, comes from a small neighborhood restaurant in the heart of central Florida, the Wheeler family’s Goody Café in downtown Arcadia. It thrived on locals’ lunch business. To find it, you had to get off U.S. Highway 17 and State Road 70, so most tourists missed it. When we knew it in the 1970s, it served hot, ample meals - a strong incentive to pass through Arcadia at lunchtime.

Wheeler’s now is open seven days a week – Monday through Saturday from 6 AM to 8 PM, and Sunday from 6 AM to 2 PM. The Current owners are the third since the Wheelers left, and they don’t serve Mrs. Wheeler’s sweet potato dish.

Years after Mrs. Wheeler’s granddaughter gave me the list of ingredients for the recipe that follows, I was chatting with a Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension agent about Mrs. Wheeler and the great meals we had there. The agent said that she once lived near Arcadia and was amazed that I had Mrs. Wheeler’s recipe. “I begged for it for years, and always was refused,” she said. Mrs. Wheeler’s granddaughter may not have known about her grandmother’s prohibition. In any case, I was just plain lucky.

Mrs. Wheeler’s granddaughter gave me a list of ingredients, leaving me to decide how much to make. She said they made trays of the sweet potatoes and she never saw anyone measure any of the ingredients. Here is the list and the instructions I received. Cook a quantity of potatoes with spicing that works for your family:

Mrs. Wheeler’s Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

2 pounds of cooled, skinned sweet potatoes   

Low-fat milk or light cream - just enough to moisten the potatoes

Butter - just enough for flavor   

Orange juice - just enough to moisten potatoes

Honey or sugar to taste   

Orange peel soaked ahead of time in orange juice

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Honey or sugar to taste   

2 eggs   

Real vanilla extract to taste

Bake the sweet potatoes. To speed up the baking process, cut a couple of slashes in each potato with a knife, or use cooking nails.

Peel, mash, and beat the baked potatoes with a mixer. Taste them. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, and may not need much sweetener. Add honey or sugar to taste.
Separate egg whites and yokes.

Beat into the potatoes the butter, a small amount of milk and orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and egg yokes. Add additional milk and orange juice as needed.

Potatoes should be thick and smooth, but not runny.

Beat and lightly fold in egg whites.

Bake sweet potatoes in butter-covered casserole for about an hour at 300 to 325 degrees F. Time the casserole so it is ready about the same time as your turkey.