Whew, the year is flying by. It is already November and it will soon be Thanksgiving. I’m starting to plan my Thanksgiving meal, which, of course, will include sweet potatoes. This year, I don’t want to make Candied Sweet Potatoes (boring) or Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows on top (too sweet); yet, to give a nod to tradition (and to keep my guests happy), a little brown sugar on the sweet potatoes would be good. With all these thoughts swirling through my head, my next step was to flip through hundred-year-old cookbooks to look for a promising sweet potato recipe.
And, I found a winner. Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple is easy to make, tasty, and makes a lovely presentation. Sweet potatoes are halved lengthwise, topped with half of a pineapple slice, and then smothered with a brown sugar and cinnamon sauce.
The Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple have the familiar rich caramel of brown sugar with an additional hint of cinnamon. The warm cinnamon notes balance nicely with the sunny pineapple and the earthy sweet potato.
This recipe made the cut and goes on my Thanksgiving menu.
Here is the original recipe:
Here is the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple
Note: The number of sweet potatoes used in this recipe is somewhat flexible. The size of the sweet potatoes and how many fit in the dish should be considered. Relatively small, uniform sweet potatoes that are not particularly long work well with this recipe.
4 – 6 medium sweet potatoes
4 – 6 slices of canned pineapple
1 teaspoon salt
Water
Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups brown sugar
¾ cup water
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
Step 1. Peel the sweet potatoes, then cut lengthwise. Put the cut sweet potatoes in a Dutch oven or large saucepan; cover with water and add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil using high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until the sweet potatoes have just softened (about 30 minutes). Remove from heat and drain. (Do not overcook. The sweet potatoes should still maintain their shape and not be extremely soft.)
Step 2. Preheat oven to 350° F. Arrange the cooked sweet potato halves in a flat baking dish. (I used a 7 X 11 inch baking dish, though there is sufficient sauce to use a 9 X 13 inch dish, if desired). The sweet potato halves should be placed close to each other in the baking dish with the rounded side down. If the sweet potatoes are not level (or if some are higher than others), use a knife to trim off a small portion of the rounded side.
Step 3. Put half of a pineapple slice on top of each sweet potato half.
Step 4. In the meantime, make the sauce. Put the butter in a saucepan, then melt using low heat. Add the brown sugar, ¾ cup water, cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon salt; stir to combine. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes (or until the sauce begins to thicken); stir occasionally.
Step 5. Pour the sauce over the sweet potatoes and pineapple. Put in the oven, and cook until hot and bubbly (20 – 30 minutes). If the top of the sweet potatoes and pineapple looks dry midway through the cooking time, baste using a spoon to put a little of the syrup over them.
Step 6. Remove from oven and serve.
That looks and sounds delicious! Do you think it possible to use fresh pineapple? For whatever reason, my husband objects to the texture of canned pineapple, but we both love fresh, and have it in the fridge regularly.
My son he is going to do the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. We may need to have some menu negotiations 😀
Fresh pineapple should work fine. Depending upon the texture you prefer, maybe cook in the oven for a few extra minutes to soften the pineapple a little.
I have been fighting the sweet sticky marshmallow sweet potato here for years!!!
I might get away with this I think. I prefer to dice the sweet potato and toss with a bit of oil and cumin, salt and a touch of crushed chilies and brown sugar and roast on a sheet pan! Almost have the family converted to this warm spicy but its taken 40 years.
mmm. . . your sweet potato recipe sounds lovely. I’ll have to give it a try – not for Thanksgiving – but for dinner sometime. I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to serve winter vegetables.
Berber seasoning is great on sweet potatoes roasted on a sheet pan. I do like cumin and chilis as well. Garam masala on my sweet potatoes as well.
That should be “Garam masala is good on sweet potatoes as well.”
I have a jar of “Berbere – Ethiopian,” which I think is Berber Seasoning. I use it to make Misir What, which is a lovely Ethiopian red lentil stew. I’ll have to try putting some of it on sweet potatoes.
It is the same as Berbere seasoning. I love to make Ethiopian food and Misir What is delicious. I have found other uses for my Berber Seasoning.
Our discussion got me thinking about Misir What. I bought some lentils yesterday and I’m going to make some for lunch today.
Can I come over? 🙂
What a fun idea!
The recipe turned out well.
Ineresting. Does this go with the main course, or is it a pudding?
It would be considered a side dish to the main course. Even though this recipe (and many other sweet potato recipes) call for lots of sugar, they are served during the main course at Thanksgiving and at other meals.
Ah well, sweet and sour isn’t so unusual these days.
Probably healthier than marshmallows. I think it might make a nice appetizer, too.
I never would have thought of it, but it probably would work well as an appetizer.
My grandmother made something similar – classic comfort food!
It is a lovely comfort food. It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some good food memories.
Honestly, plain mashed sweet potatoes with butter, salt, pepper and a touch of milk are amazing! We made them that way because hubs was diabetic and it was recommended in all the stuff we read.
I agree with you. Plain mashed sweet potatoes are the best. They are the healthiest and very tasty.
This I could go for but the BBQ sweet potatoes that came with my food plan were not good.
BBQ sweet potatoes?. . . I can’t quite even picture what they’d taste like. I just did an online search for BBQ sweet potato recipes and was surprised to discover that there are several recipes for them.
I thought they were terrible.
It does look pretty and sounds delicious! I love pineapples, so this sounds like a great use for some of the 122 lbs of sweet potatoes I grew.
I read the old recipe twice to see if I missed the oven temperature. Was the cook slowly in the oven the clue to the temperature?
I think that the original directions were written for someone using a wood or coal stove to cook. By 1925, some people, especially in towns, had electric or gas stoves, but many were still using wood or coal stoves. 1925 recipes and cookbooks vary greatly in how they address oven temperature. Some, like this recipe, use terms like “slow,” “medium,” and “hot;” while others refer to specific temperatures like modern recipes.
When updating this recipe, I actually struggled with what oven temperature to use. The original recipe says to “cook slowly.” I went with 350° F. because it seemed like an appropriate temperature for this type of dish, but, in general, “slow” tends to mean a somewhat lower temperature (300° F. or even less) than that to me.
It sounds like 350°F worked well. It is interesting that a wood/coal stove recipe would be using pineapples! It is amazing how fast canned pineapple became accepted and how long it took for electric/gas stoves to become the norm.
Yes, 350°F worked well. I continue to find it fascinating how the U.S. was shifting in the early 1900s from a country that was primarily agrarian to a modern industrial society. Factories and processing plants were humming, and railroads and ships were transporting foods long distances.
Looks great and simple to make and rather delish…..
It’s a nice recipe that is both easy to make and tasty.