Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Recipe No. 633 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Vegetables. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Potatoes, sweet — 45 pounds
• Salt — as needed
• Water, boiling — as needed

Sugar, brown — 3½ pounds (3½ mess kit cups)

• Water, boiling (for sugar) — 2 quarts (2 No. 56 dippers)
• Salt — ½ ounce (1 mess kit spoon)
• Butter — 8 ounces (¼ No. 56 dipper)

Directions

1. Wash sweet potatoes.
2. Cover sweet potatoes with boiling salted water. Cover and heat to boiling point; reduce heat and simmer until tender. Drain; cool and peel.
3. Cut potatoes into crosswise slices; place slices in well greased baking pans.
4. Mix sugar and boiling water, stirring only until sugar is dissolved. Heat to boiling point; boil without stirring until a thin sirup is formed.
5. Add salt and butter. Pour sirup over potatoes.
6. Bake in moderate oven (350° F.) 30 minutes.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Potatoes, sweet — 3 lb 9⅔ oz Salt — to taste Water, boiling — to taste Sugar, brown — 4½ oz Water, boiling (for sugar) — 10¼ tbsp Salt — a pinch Butter — ⅔ oz

½ quart (½ No. 56 dipper) corn sirup may be substituted for ½ of the brown sugar in recipe for glazed sweet potatoes. Reduce water to 1 quart (1 No. 56 dipper).

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 633, Vegetables. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.