THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

SWEET POTATOES AU GRATIN.

Parboil the potatoes, peel and slice while hot.  Butter a deep dish well, put in a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with sugar, salt, pepper, and dot with butter, then a stratum of fine crumbs, season in the same way, leaving out the sugar.  The uppermost layer should be of crumbs and well buttered.  Pour in 4 tablespoons of warm water to generate steam, cover closely, and bake ½ an hour.  Uncover and brown.  This is an especially nice dish for a family dinner, and always liked by children.

~Magic Cook Book and Housekeepers Guide. Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal: E. W. Gillett Co, Ltd., 1915

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 4 sweet potatoes
• 1 c. finely grated bread crumbs
• 2 Tb. brown sugar
• 2 Tb. butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 Tb. warm water.

Grate the bread crumbs.

Generously grease a 6-cup baking dish with butter.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Wash the sweet potatoes, and place them in a saucepan with cold water, slightly salted.

Parboil, over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sweet potatoes just begin to become tender.

Drain the potatoes, then peel and slice them, while still hot.

Put a layer of the sweet potatoes into the buttered dish, and sprinkle with part of the sugar; salt and pepper lightly, and dot with butter.

Cover with a layer of bread crumbs;  sprinkle these also lightly with salt and pepper, and dot with butter.

Repeat the alternate layers twice more so that you end with a layer of crumbs.

Dot the top generously with butter, and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.

Add 4 tablespoons of water to the dish (to produce steam), and cover with a lid.

Bake at 325F for 30 minutes.

Then, increase the temperature to 350F and remove the lid.

Continue to bake for approximately one hour longer, until lightly browned and crisp on the top.

Yield:  4 servings.

Serve this dish hot;  it is especially good with pork.

Never try to dispose of the last mouthful of soup, the last morsel of food. “It is not expected,” says one writer, “that your plate should be sent away cleansed by your gastronomic exertions.”

~Cooke, Maud C. Social Etiquette or Manners and Custms of Polite Society. London, Ontario: McDermid & Logan, 1896.

Sweet Potatoes (Roast).

Wash, wipe, and roast.  Serve in their jackets.

~Clarke, Anne. The Hudson’s Bay Cook Book. The Hudson’s Bay Company Publishers, 1899.

A note from Patricia: Adding a French phrase like ‘au gratin’ to the end of any food automatically makes it feel fancier and perhaps more complicated, but this recipe couldn’t be any simpler or easier. The brown sugar complemented the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes, and I adored the crispy, buttery top, and smooth layers beneath. I used some stale gluten-free bread pulsed in the food processor to make my breadcrumbs, and found this dish to be nourishing and satisfying, and too good to save for special occasions.