Why Add Sugar to Sweet Potatoes?

[Broomstick]

@FairyChatMom

I never understood the sweet potato casserole with marshmallow on top. Talk about overload!! Maybe those who came up with such recipes just didn’t like sweet potatoes in the first place?

I agree with you. I’ll maybe add a little butter and cinnamon, or just butter, but beyond that, it’s just too much. Well, except for the recipe that has a brown sugar and pecan topping that gets crunchy when baked - yeah, more like dessert than a side dish.

As a dessert, sure, add in all the sugar you want. I don’t mind those two sweet potato casserole variants on Thanksgiving because to some degree the holiday is about gluttony.

I started liking them when I was served mashed sweet potatoes, like mash potatoes but with the sweets. That actually tasted good to me. Maybe if they had been served to me like that all along I would have been eating them most of my life.

@Little_Nemo

I feel the same way about salt. I don’t use much of it and I often feel that other people are making food too salty because they’re become desensitized to it. I’ve seen people add salt to a dish that already contains salty ingredients like bacon, ham, or cheese.

Yep, I feel the same way. Again, I mostly cook at home from scratch so I just never numbed my taste buds to salt.

@solost

I think it’s about leaning into the sweetness and going full dessert style. My mom used to sprinkle sugar on strawberries, which I think are plenty sweet enough on their own.

Yep, I know people who will simply refuse to eat strawberries unless there is added sugar. Why? Well, they probably think I’m nuts for NOT adding sugar.

@lobotomyboy63

Many years ago I saw a recipe for slicing them super thin and applying a bit of cooking spray, then baking them to end up with chips (i.e. “crisps” to BE folks). Never got a good result but I didn’t have an air fryer. May have to try that again.

Terra chips has a sweet potato version, as well as sweet potato chips being part of their original chip mix. Wish Terra would put out a bag of just all tarro chips, as those are my favorite from them. Aldi has their own version of Terra chips, which also have a sweet potato option. They’re pretty good, and another instance where sugar is not added.

@LSLGuy

If you watch any cooking show that involves sweating or sauteeing onions, or cooking carrots the host will say something like “Now I’ll add 1/4c of sugar to bring out the natural sweetness in the onions/carrots.” At which point I scream at the TV: “No you stupid f***! You mean you’ll drown the veg’s natural taste in sugar because you and your benighted audience have no taste buds left!”

::: blink blink :::

Probably just as well I don’t watch cooking shows - really, adding sugar to onions and carrots? That’s just… never done in my kitchen.