Proof That Sweet Potato Recipes Are A Thanksgiving Necessity (2024)

FAQs

Why are sweet potatoes a Thanksgiving food? ›

The exact origin of the tradition of including sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving dinner menu remains uncertain. However, much credit is given to writer, activist, and an influential editor Sarah Josepha Hale who was a staunch advocate for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589 & the potato has been linked to Irish history ever since. Mashed potatoes, the most common way to enjoy potatoes at Thanksgiving, became an American staple in the 1700s. As far back as 1747, Americans were mashing up potatoes with butter, milk, salt, & cream.

The largest producer of sweet potatoes in the United States is North Carolina which harvested 1.6 billion pounds in 2015 and has been responsible for most of the gains in recent years. California, Mississippi, and Louisiana are also notable sweet potato-producing States.

Candied sweet potatoes, or yams, came much later; the earliest written recipe for this sweet casserole is from 1796, found in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. Simmons's recipe was titled "potatoe pudding," but historians suspect that the potatoes she used were, in fact, sweet potatoes (via Four Pounds Flour).

They're high in fiber and antioxidants, which protect your body from free radical damage and promote a healthy gut and brain. They're also incredibly rich in beta carotene, which is converted to vitamin A to support good vision and your immune system.

Vitamins and Minerals

Just one sweet potato gives you 102% of the vitamin A you need each day. This helps keep your eyes healthy as well as your immune system, your body's defense against germs. It's also good for your reproductive system and organs like your heart and kidneys.

It is also worth noting what was not present at the first Thanksgiving feast. There were no cloudlike heaps of mashed potatoes, since white potatoes had not yet crossed over from South America. There was no gravy either, since the colonists didn't yet have mills to produce flour.

But according to the two only remaining historical records of the first Thanksgiving menu, that meal consisted of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, cod, bass, and flint, and a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

Oddly enough, a few contemporary Thanksgiving powerhouses didn't make an appearance at the original holiday table. Neither white potatoes nor sweet potatoes had yet been brought to North America from South and Central America, respectively.

No, yams and sweet potatoes are not the same. Yams have rough, dark brown skin that is often compared to tree bark, and their flesh is dry and starchy like a regular potato. Sweet potatoes have smooth reddish skin, softer flesh (when cooked), and a sweet flavor.

What state is famous for sweet potatoes? ›

North Carolina produces more sweet potatoes than any other state in the United States and has been a leader since 1971. [1] In 2021 its production represented 64 percent of total U.S. production.

Turkey. Just as it's a traditional meat used for Christmas dinner, turkey is favoured because it's big – and that means it can feed a whole family.

According to Saveur, the first instance of marshmallows in a sweet potato dish appeared in a booklet commissioned by Angelus Marshmallows, one of the first companies to mass produce the candies that were formerly only available to the rich.

Native Americans were known to have grown sweet potato extensively by the 1700s and soon thereafter it became a popular staple of the South. Even today, sweet potato is much more popular in the south than the north as a food.

Sweet potatoes can also be called yams in North America. When soft varieties were first grown commercially there, there was a need to differentiate between the two.

In 1621, the vegetable had not yet made its way to the colonies. And sweet potatoes were first discovered in the Caribbean, but they too had not been introduced into North America at the time of the first Thanksgiving.

One question that is often asked before preparing a sweet potato casserole is: do you top it with marshmallows or a sweet pecan crust? The first recipe for marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole was actually published by a marshmallow manufacturer in 1917.

Winslow didn't mention turkeys at all, but Bradford writes, "And besides waterfowl (duck or geese), there was a great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc." Americans started eating turkey for Thanksgiving in the mid-1800s after a popular magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale ...

Despite what your grandmother says, this cloying side dish didn't originate as a family recipe. It was concocted by Big Marshmallow as a way to push the candy on Americans. Though the tubers are high in sugar to begin with, there's historical precedent for treating sweet potatoes like dessert.