Sweet Potato or Yam?
The confusion between yams and sweet potatoes dates from European contact, when Columbus encountered sweet potatoes for the first time and conceived them to be a variety of yam—the edible West African tubers of the Dioscorea family had been well known to Europeans since the Portuguese voyages along the continent’s west coast in the 1460s and ‘70s. He brought examples to Europe from the second voyage. Yet African yams never established a substantial presence on the North American mainland; but sweet potatoes did. When enslaved Africans encountered sweet potatoes in the West Indies, they processed them as they did the yams that they brought with them over the Atlantic. They did not eat them raw, as livestock did. They shredded, pounded, leached, boiled, roasted or fried them—the cooking processes designed to counteract the toxicity of the raw African yam. Though baking was not a West African culinary technique, contact with Europeans and their bread fixations taught West Indian slaves to bake the sweet potatoes into breads, pones, and pies.
Beth Messick, Contributor
1 heaping c. mashed sweet potatoes
(about 3 or four medium sized potatoes)
(about 3 or four medium sized potatoes)
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening (or butter, if you prefer)
3 c. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
3 tsp. baking powder
Boil potatoes in skins, peel and mash. Add sugar, salt, and shortening to warm potatoes.
Sift flour and baking powder together. Add to potato mixture.
Add water to make consistency of biscuit dough.
Knead a few times to make smooth. Form into biscuits.
Place on a well greased baking pan.
Bake at 450 degrees about 12-15 minutes until light brown.
Makes about 16 biscuits
