Sweet Potatoes or Yams – A Great Thanksgiving Choice in Both the U.S. and Europe

Each Thanksgiving both yams and sweet potatoes appear in stateside grocery stores.  And though they look similar, these two holiday stables are not the same.

Sweet potatoes are a member of the morning glory family and their blossoms resemble the bright blue flower of this climbing vine. Like the morning glory, the sweet potato is a heat loving plant. It is their need for warmth and sunlight that has defined their place in culinary history.

Sweet potatoes originally came from the warm growing fields of South and Central America as early as 750 BC where they were called “batata”. This indigenous word was later changed to “potato” as languages met and mingled into the New World.

Europeans first encountered the sweet potato when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean.   Soon he was exporting sweet potato eyes to Spain where they grew very well under the warm Hispanic sun as the newest elite (and most expensive) vegetable from the New World.

One of Spain’s major clients for the very new sweet potatoes was amazingly Henry VIII.  

In England’s colder climate sweet potatoes simply did not grow well, if at all. Though expensive, Henry VIII was willing to pay a high price for the hundred of pounds of sweet potato that he imported – and why?  He thought the sweet potato was an aphrodisiac!   

By the 1700s sweet potatoes had lost enough their sexual association to be a favorite in conservative colonial America.  Home cooks from Vermont to Pennsylvania added brandy or rum to the traditional English mixture of sweet potatoes, farm eggs, fresh butter and rich cream and created the now famous northern American Thanksgiving pie.

Meanwhile Spain’s great rival, Portugal was also expanding her overseas colonies (and profits).  They imported the American sweet potato to Africa where they held colonies.  It grew well in the higher heat of Africa but produced a higher starch level as a result.   

Adapted into the rural farming culture of central Africa, the new starchier sweet potato was renamed “nyami” by the African farmers, which in America was mispronounced as “yam”.  When the natives of Africa were later captured and transported to America as slaves for the vast southern plantations, the yam also came with them.

And that is why in the English speaking North this remarkable vegetable was called a 'sweet potato” and made into a pie using only a small amount of sugar.  In the South, however, the starchier “yam" needed more sugar and was made into a much richer pie by house slaves, who called it by a different name.

Today Europe’s interest in both the sweet potato and the yam is on the rise. Thoughtful Europeans are impressed with this vitamin-packed vegetable.  Between 2005 and 2009 more than $51,400,000 worth of yams and sweet potatoes were exported by American farmers to Europe, especially Great Britain.  

King Henry, who always loved a feast, would be smiling. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

Regional Differences Decide Whether It’s Stuffing or Dressing this Thanksgiving

Yes, yes, it is the question that rages every Thanksgiving: Is the correct word “stuffing” or “dressing” and what’s the ‘best’ recipe? Well, it all depends on where you live in the United States.

If you want to address the question from a culinary point of view, stuffing is what is cooked inside the turkey because it is ‘stuffed’ inside. Makes sense, no?  Dressing is what is cooked outside the turkey, ‘dressing’ up or enhancing the serving platter.

From a regional point of view, north of the Mason-Dixon Line, ‘stuffing’ is called stuffing.  That’s because ‘stuffing’ is an old English word dating back to 1538.  It’s practical and reflects the heritage of New England’s early settlers.

South of the Mason-Dixon Line, stuffing is generally called “dressing”. This choice of words occurs because holiday dining in the South was largely centered around the great rural plantations and elite townhouses of Charleston, Atlanta and the like.  There, with the help of black house slaves, dining was a more formal affair than in the farm kitchens of the North. It also reflected a baronial Scottish influence from the many pre-Civil War land owners.

After the Civil War many former house slaves found employment in the kitchens of northern hotels and the dining cars of the Pullman trains heading west.  As a result, the use of the word ‘dressing’ moved out of the South and spread throughout the nation mingling with the word ‘stuffing’.  Today it’s largely a personally choice which word you want to use.

As to what is the best recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing/dressing, that, too, is largely a regional question.  In the North a bread based stuffing with onions, celery, thyme and sage is the norm while in the Carolinas a rice dressing is the most traditional.

Cornbread dressing is a deep South favorite with bits of ham, country bacon or smoked sausage added.

Once both New England and Louisiana favored oysters mixed into the stuffing/dressing.   But sadly once the northern oyster beds were destroyed by over fishing and pollution, only the southern Delta area continues this tradition.

In Chicago and nearby parts of the Midwest where there are large eastern European communities, rye or other heavy Bohemian-style bread is often used to make a darker but great tasting stuffing. 

Out in California, creative cooks use sourdough bread as the basis for their stuffing/dressing with the possible addition of wild mushrooms, chestnuts and other often unusual ingredients such as artichokes.

In Texas, New Mexico and Arizona a corn based tamale stuffing with pulled pork, red chilies and rich raisins is a holiday must.

So this Thanksgiving you can ‘correctly” enjoy any of these amazing stuffings/dressings because that’s what America is truly about – diversity and community.  

We should all give thanks this holiday, no matter what our choice is, because we can all celebrate together – one nation in fellowship with each other.     

Happy Holidays!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010