Canned Sweet Potatoes

At book club last Friday, I had a very simple sweet potato dish that I can say was the best I ever had.  It was made with white sugar and the potatoes were sliced very thinly.  We had a pork tenderloin roast and a mandarin orange salad that made for a beautiful fall meal.   I normally don’t like sweet potatoes when they are served with brown sugar or marshmallows, but I really like these.  I’m sharing a recipe similar to my apple-pie-in-a-jar recipe, so you can simply heat it and serve it at your will or use it for other recipes like sweet potato pie.  I can’t always find sweet potatoes here in Maquoketa, but am seeing them now so my mind went to canning them in a white syrup.

18 lbs peeled sweet potatoes steamed until just cooked through.

6 cups white or brown sugar (your choice)

10 cups water

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tsp salt

18 lbs of sweet potatoes will yield 7 or 8 quarts, canned.

Cook the potatoes and cube them up into 1 or 2 inch cubes. Don't mash them up too much, or the results will be mushy.

Add the water, sugar, cinnamon and salt to a pot and bring the syrup to a rolling boil.

Fill quart jars with the sweet potatoes and cover with the hot syrup, leaving 1 inch of "head space" between the top of the potatoes and the top of the jar.

Put sterile lids on the jars and seal.

Process for 60 minutes in a hot water bath.

Stay sweet and happy.  May God bless you and yours.