The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-20
AS TO THE SWEET Potato.

The art of cooking the sweet potato
is the subject of a pamphlet recently is
sued by the Department of Agriculture,
at Washington. The bulletin ought to
be given wide circulation at the North,
where few persons who were not born
and reared in the South know anything
about the sweet potato, and still fewer
know how to cook one. Most Northern
persons who have tasted the sweet po-
tato in the North have found 1t to be
rather poor food, because it was spoiled
in the cooking. Southerners visiting
Northern cities have frequently been dis
gusted upon ordering sweet potatoes to
be served with something the like of
which they never saw before. The cook
didn't know his business when it came
to sweet potatoes. He had tried to add
sweetness where none was needed, and
to get through the Job in too great a
hurry.
The governments potato cook book puts
stress upon the fact, which every South
ern housewife and negro knows, that the
potato cannot be hurried in the cooking,
If good results are to be obtained. 1t
requires time, and a plenty of It; but
it is a grateful tuber. and gives back
good value for the time expended upon it.
Meanwhile 1t is sometimes vindictive, es-
pecially If it is newly out of the ground,
and will give cramps to the person who
is foolhardy enough TO make quick cook
ing and quick eating of it, Thoroughly
cooked it is soft, sweet, nutritious, whole
some and easily digested; half-cooked, 1t
quarters of an hour.
There are fifty ways of cooking a sweet
potato. but there is only one best way.
That is by baking. preferably in the old
fashioned brick ovens. now unluckily al
most extinct. The old brick ovens are
passing away with the old-fashioned
colored mammies. The two were COM
panions and friends, and the delightful
dishes that they turned out by mutual
efforts were solaces to epicures A. stove
oven, however, will bake a sweet potato
well. provided the heat is not too high.
II requires at least six hours of mod
crate heat to bring a potato to perfection.
of course. At the expiration OF six hours.
II the potato is of good quality and has
been out of the ground long enough to
have ripened, that is for the sap 10 be
out of 1t. 1t will be found soft through
out and delightfully."- sweet. 1t may be
served hot or cold, with butter, meats,
gravy or milk, or 1t is very good to be
After baking, roasting is the next best
method of cooking the potato. It is the
habit OF the darkes of the South to bank
potatoes in the hot ashes of their fire.
places and let them remain over night.
The next morning they are found to be
done to turn. This method brings out
the flavor practically as well as baking.
though IL sometimes results in one side
Of the potato being burned. 1t is OBJ
jectionable because the skins are less
clean when cooked in ashes. Steaming
will cook a potato in a shorter time than
either baking or roasting, and the
steamed potato is not at all bad eating;
but 1t makes the meat somewhat watery
and less sweet. The same applies TO
boiling There are those, however, who
prefer the steamed or boiled potato TO
the baked or roasted.
There are. of course. many dishes TO be
made from the sweet potato. such as pies,
"pones." croquettes, etc. with most of
them, however. II is like spelling an ex-
oellent thing only to produce something
that is no better. The governments pam
phlct contains a number of potato re-
cipes, II tho publication shall have the
effect OF inducing even a limited number
Of persons at the North to Investigate
the sweet potato, and to cook them right
and long enough, and eat them right
not smothored In all sorts OF fancy FIX
ings-the department will have conferred
a boon.
Northern communities arc now Offering
mfN II