where is sweet potato pie from?

Sweet potato pie

Sweet potatoes are "New World" foods, pie is an "Old World" recipe. Creamy recipes combining orange vegetables with sweeteners, spice and cream were known in Medieval Europe. Carrots were sometimes employed in this manner in England. Sweet potatoes (like pumpkins) were introduced to Europe in the 16th century. Food historians tell us these new vegetables were greatly prized by some European kings and queens.

"King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella may have liked [sweet potatoes] well enough to have planted them in their court gardens. Their son-in-law, Henry VIII of England, liked them too, he thought the plant was an aphrodesiac...Rareness and expense, besides that quality Henry VIII appreciated, lent it chic. Also, "the most delicate root that may be eaten," as the sixteenth-century English mariner and slave trader John Hawkins called it, suited European taste. ..Henry ate his sweet potatoes in heavily spiced and sugared pies, a fashion that survived at least until the 1680s."

---The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World, Larry Zuckerman [North Point Press:New York] 1998 (p. 9)

Sweet potatoes were introduced to West Africa soon thereafter. They were similar to yams ("Old World" foods) and quickly incorporated into the local cuisine. Sweet potato pie seems to have converged in the American South from very early colonial days. It quickly became a staple of the region. Today this fine pie is considered by some to be a cornerstone of "Soul Food."

"Africans in the South knew the yam...from their homeland and the two tubers have become virtually interchangeable in Southern cooking. Most Southern sweet potato ricpes have been developed by black from their traditional cuisine..."

---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 268)

Why are sweet potatoes pies sometimes served with marshmallows? During the late 19th/early 20th century marshmallows were very trendy. Mass-manufactured, plentiful and inexpensive, they were incorporated into cakes, pies, gelatin desserts, hot chocolate, candies, and the like. Marshmallows were promoted as a moden whipped cream substitute. About marshmallows. The earliest recipes we find combining sweet potato dishes with marshmallows [in American cookbooks] were printed in the early 1930s. According to these books, marshmallows were placed on top of the finished pie for decoration. In reality? Printed recipes lag several years behind actual practice. It is a pretty safe assumption that marshmallows (or their culinary precursor, sweet cream) were added to holiday sweet potato dishes much earlier.

Easy Sweet Potato Pie

Number of Servings: 1 pie

Prep Time: 1 hour Skill Level: Easy

Ingredients

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell

1 large sweet potato, boiled

6 tablespoons butter

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Peel boiled sweet potato and place in large mixing bowl. Mash with butter.

3. Add eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and vanilla and mix well.

4 Turn out into pie shell and bake for 15 minutes. Lower temp. to 325F and bake another 30 min.

Serve as a side dish at holiday dinners or as a dessert with whipped cream.

Helpful Hints:

This is a great favorite at our house for the Christmas holidays. For a richer taste, try substituting half-and-half for milk.

HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU AND GOODLUCK WITH YOUR PROJECT

The sweet potato is a native root veg to the southern regions of the United States, which is also the origin of the sweet potato pie.

Sweet Potato Pie

2 cups peeled, cooked sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick melted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup milk

9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (gas mark 4).

For the filling, using an electric hand mixer, combine the potatoes, the sugar, the butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, and spices. Mix thoroughly. Add the milk and continue to mix. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Place the pie on a rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

***

Sweet potato can be cooked in place of normal white potatoes; mashed, roasted, baked, chips (dipped in honey instead of ketchup or mayo).

There are two kinds of sweet potato - one that is very orange in colour and cooks up moist. It's colour is due to a great deal of beta keratin (same thing found in carrots and pumpkin).

The other kind of sweet potato is (mistakenly) called a yam. It's more yellow in colour, less naturally sweet and has a drier consistency - it's a type of wild potato (like the normal white potato we're use to), not at all in the yam family.

Cheers

No weblinks? Kimberly it sounds like you want us to do your homework for you. Pumpkin is the easiest of the two. It originates here in the United States.

Pumpkin Pie Recipes

Ingredients:

1 (9-inch) unbaked pastry shell

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, ground nutmeg and salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, beat all ingredients together with whisk or mixer. Pour into crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35 to 45 minutes longer. Cool before serving.

What could be move American than sweet potato pie.

A sweet potato pie recipe, made with butter and sweet potatoes, along with vanilla and cinnamon.

INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces butter, softened

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

2 cups granulated sugar

1 small can (5 ounces, about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 prepared pie shells, unbaked

PREPARATION:

Mix butter, potatoes, sugar and evaporated milk until well blended. Add vanilla, eggs, and cinnamon; mix well. Pour into the prepared pie shells. Bake in a 350° oven for about 1 hour, until set.

Makes 2 pies.

Hi Kim, LOL I'm still laughing. Sweetie,i don't like either of the pies you need help with. I think the sweet potato pie came from the south. Like georgia. Sorry,i couldn't be a bigger help for you.

A Friend.

Clowmy

It was on the Food Channel during Thanksgiving. They said it started in Africa and was modified in the Caribbean and brought to the US by slaves.

granny's oven

i dunno