Proof That Sweet Potato Recipes Are A Thanksgiving Necessity (2024)

FAQs

Why are sweet potatoes a Thanksgiving food? ›

The exact origin of the tradition of including sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving dinner menu remains uncertain. However, much credit is given to writer, activist, and an influential editor Sarah Josepha Hale who was a staunch advocate for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

Sadly, likely no pie was served at the first Thanksgiving either, as the Pilgrims did not have much sugar or other components needed to make a pie. Sweet potatoes were also not at the feast, as there were no sweet potatoes in America at that time.

You can't have Thanksgiving without potatoes. Well, you can, but why? According to the National Grocers Association, we'll buy about 214 million pounds of potatoes and 50 million pounds of sweet potatoes for the holiday. That doesn't include the 3 million pounds of prepared mashed potatoes people will buy.

Sweet potatoes are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. Sweet potatoes are great sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, beta carotene, fiber and potassium. Sweet potatoes can be white, yellow, red, purple or orange. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are sweeter than the other varieties.

Just one sweet potato gives you 102% of the vitamin A you need each day. This helps keep your eyes healthy as well as your immune system, your body's defense against germs. It's also good for your reproductive system and organs like your heart and kidneys.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and though the turkey (or ham) might take top billing, everyone knows the sides are the true stars of the table. What would our national holiday be without stuffing and sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese, green beans and rolls?

But according to the two only remaining historical records of the first Thanksgiving menu, that meal consisted of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, cod, bass, and flint, and a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

It is also worth noting what was not present at the first Thanksgiving feast. There were no cloudlike heaps of mashed potatoes, since white potatoes had not yet crossed over from South America. There was no gravy either, since the colonists didn't yet have mills to produce flour.

Although turkeys were indigenous, there's no record of a big, roasted bird at the feast. The Wampanoag brought deer and there would have been lots of local seafood (mussels, lobster, bass) plus the fruits of the first pilgrim harvest, including pumpkin. No mashed potatoes, though.

Mashed potatoes are the front-runner to be on the most plates this Thanksgiving. Turkey no longer reigns supreme. Findings showed that over half of the United States would be content to only have sides on their holiday plates and 67% of Americans prefer side dishes to the main entrée!

What is the most consumed food on Thanksgiving? ›

What do Thanksgiving people in the US eat for Thanksgiving? Roast turkey is the big one. With cranberry sauce (or gravy, if you prefer it). :d Also ham, corn (meaning maize), peas, mashed potatoes, and various types of sweet pies -- apple, cherry, pumpkin, pecan.

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of sweetpotato, where it is used for food, animal feed, and processing (as food, starch, and other products).

Sweet potatoes in fact, are considered a superfood. They are an excellent source of many key nutrients such as fiber, vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium and manganese. Additionally, they contain antioxidants and are naturally low in sodium.

In terms of vitamins, sweet potato won when it came to vitamin C and vitamin A, but the regular potato was higher in folic acid and vitamins B1 and B3. Having looked at the nutritional profiles of and both boiled and baked sweet and regular potatoes, it's hard to pick an outright winner.

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589 & the potato has been linked to Irish history ever since. Mashed potatoes, the most common way to enjoy potatoes at Thanksgiving, became an American staple in the 1700s. As far back as 1747, Americans were mashing up potatoes with butter, milk, salt, & cream.

Sadly, likely no pie was served at the first Thanksgiving either, as the Pilgrims did not have much sugar or other components needed to make a pie. Sweet potatoes were also not at the feast, as there were no sweet potatoes in America at that time.

Most people point to a 1917 pamphlet by the Angelus Marshmallow Company as the first time sweet potatoes and marshmallows came together. This company is believed to be the first to commercially-produce and sell the squishy white marshmallows we know, roast, and snack on today.

Potato and sweet potato are examples of analogous organs. Both sweet potato and potato have a common function i.e., storage of food in the form of starch. Hence, they show convergent evolution. But they both differ in structural origin as the sweet potato is a root modification while the potato is a stem modification.