TO DINE AT THE REMOTE COLONIAL INN IN HISTORIC Hillsborough, North Carolina, when I was a student at the university in nearby Chapel Hill was to go back two hundred years, when Southern cuisine was just beginning to establish a unique identity. And to sample a dish such as these spicy Cornwallis yams was to get some idea just how different and exotic early cookery could be. Since genuine yams from South America and parts of Africa and Asia were no more available then than now (and I do wish people could finally let that fact sink in), the tubers would have been native sweet potatoes, but since both dried coconut from Pacific islands and West Indian pineapples were gaining popularity in Colonial days—coconut cake has been known in the South since at least the early nineteenth century, and records show that George Washington loved pineapple—it’s highly likely that both ingredients could have been used to make innovative dishes such as this one. Whether the “yams” would have been served as a side vegetable with fried country ham or roast pork, or as a dessert, remains open to debate. Either way, they’re delicious.
MAKES: 4 to 6 servings
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup crushed canned pineapple
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup packaged flaked unsweetened coconut
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place the sweet potatoes in a large saucepan and add enough water to cover them.
- Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and simmer the sweet potatoes until they are tender, about 30 minutes.
- Drain the water from the saucepan and allow the sweet potatoes to cool enough to handle.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and place them in a mixing bowl.
- Mash the sweet potatoes well with a heavy fork.
- Add the whole milk, sugar, crushed canned pineapple, butter, beaten eggs, salt, and ground cinnamon to the mashed sweet potatoes.
- Continue mashing and mixing the ingredients until the mixture is well blended and almost smooth.
- Scrape the sweet potato mixture into a buttered 1 1/2-quart baking dish.
- Bake the sweet potato mixture in the preheated oven until it is nicely glazed on top, which usually takes about 40 to 45 minutes.
- Sprinkle the flaked coconut evenly over the top of the baked sweet potato dish.
- Serve the sweet potatoes hot.
