All the Reasons Why Dan Thinks Sweet Potatoes are Pretty Sweet | What's Eating Dan?

botanically speaking sweet potatoes are part of the conv let's the conv let's yeah kind of a convoluted combo that this family they're part of this family boy this is give me a tough one sweet potato is one of most important food crops in the world 90 percent of production happens in Asia where most people Tate OHS are white-fleshed though some are purple and they vary in levels of sweetness and starchiness if you can get your hands on Japanese white sweet potatoes do it when roasted they are rich sweet and chestnut II YUM here in the states it's easiest to find one of three kinds of sweet potatoes and they're all orange fleshed and definitively sweet and they have incredible names we've got the Beauregard the jewel and the red garnet sweet potatoes sound fancy and I guess when it comes to the science behind them but kind of our fancy so let's do some fancy science when we talk about fresh produce for pre-much always trying to limit storage time after harvest to avoid spoilage or just bad things happening to the food we want fresh food and rightfully so but with sweet potatoes I actually want them to be old well maybe not old old because we've all seen sweet potatoes sprout right you haven't seen that oh my god they throw out these beautiful shoots and leaves take a look sorry getting off track we don't want super old sweet potatoes but we want ones that have been stored in a cool dark environment for a certain period of time before they end up at the supermarket why because sweet potatoes in storage are changing in a really cool way sweet potatoes contains special enzymes called amylases that break down starch into sugars because I was born in the 80s I like to think of the enzyme as a big pac-man chomping down on long chains of starch and spitting out tiny little sugars but now that's how you're gonna think of it too sorry so how much of an impact is storage have on sweet potatoes well up to 27 percent of the starch and sweet potato can be converted to sugars in a period of 10 weeks that's significant but doesn't have to stop there those enzymes work faster and faster as the temperature increases all up to the point at which they die enzymes are so dramatic in the 140 to 170 degrees fahrenheit range these enzymes are working overtime during cooking emily's --is can convert as much as 75% of the starch in the sweet potato to sugars you could take advantage of this fancy science and a couple of really cool ways let's go to the kitchen exhibit a roasted sweet potatoes place coins of seasoned sweet potatoes on a baking sheet cover with foil placed into a cold oven and then turn on the heat that gradual climb in temperature slowed further by the wrapped baking sheet means that the sweet potatoes spend a lot of time in that literal sweet spot you get less starchy slightly sweeter sweet potatoes but with lovely caramelized exteriors Exhibit B sweet potato soup to make a smooth not too thick sweet potato soup you normally have to add a lot of liquid to thin out all of that starch and all of that extra liquid means less sweet potato flavor if only there was a way to cut back on some of that starch I don't know converts some of it to sugar guys there is that's what we've been talking about we just bring our cooking liquid up to a simmer remove the pot from the heat and drop in our cut-up sweet potatoes let them hang out and they're warm little enzyme bath for about 20 minutes and just check out the difference this is a batch where we use that step and this is a batch where we didn't crazy right roasted sweet potatoes sweet potato soup even sweet potato casserole all great dishes but none of them holds the title of best sweet potato dish because that title belongs to sweet potato fries and the only thing better than how awesome sweet potato fries are to eat is how easy they are to make you just slice them up like this and cook them in 325 degree oil like this until they're crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside then hit them with a little bit of salt and mmm-mmm-mmm these are mmm these are I'm enjoying these these are really these are really yummy I recommend eating these okay so I have to be honest with you well you just saw me doing there was acting didn't actually enjoy those fries at all but I was acting as if I did as much as I wish it was that easy to make sweet potato fries it just isn't it's challenging to make good sweet potato fries for the exact same reasons that I've just been gushing about sugar and a conversion of starch to sugar a high sugar content does not lend itself well to fried foods starch is what hydrates and crisps when we fry food and sugars just brown burn and get in the way so with sweet potatoes it's easy to end up with fries that are golden brown even dark even burned and still sod it's a total bar but if you're thinking yourself I get good sweet potato fries at restaurants all the time what's the deal the deal is that those fries are enrolled in a starchy coating the starchy coating gets crisp the inside turns sweet and creamy and everybody's happy the good news is we can do this at home too and we can do it better we're gonna make thick cut super crispy sweet potato fries cuz I love that contrast of crisp exterior and lots of creamy interior so we'll cut nice thick wedges out of these Beauregard sweet potatoes we already saw what happens when we straight-up fry these so we're not doing that instead we're gonna boil them for a couple of minutes and water the despite the salt and baking soda you'll see that after just a few minutes the exterior of these potatoes has turned bushy which looks pretty gross right wrong this is exactly what we want to have happen the baking soda raises the pH of the water which speeds the breakdown of pectin only at the surface so these are mushy on the outside but still undercooked inside now we just transfer these guys while they're still nice and hot to this bowl where I've whisked together water and cornstarch and we fold and fold and fold and fold a couple of things are happening here first the cornstarch is gelling thanks to the heat from the sweet potatoes and second that mushy exterior is coming off and mixing with that cornstarch batter turning everything a lovely orange color trust me lovely and boom now we have sweet potato wedges that are still pure sweet potato on the inside but they're coated in a higher starch sweet potato mixture on the outside you thinking what I'm thinking yeah it's time to fry we're gonna use a nice cast-iron skillet here to give more space to each wedge and cut down on sticking oh my god look at these beauties actually know what forget about that listen to these beauties look I'm kidding I don't I don't mean this celery Thank You God yourself it's not your episode just listen to the sweet potato fries they are crisp crunchy on the outside sweet dense and creamy inside and perfect for dipping in spicy mayonnaise I love them roasted a love mint soup I love them twice baked but at the end of the day there's really no debate this is how to eat sweet potatoes [Music] thanks for watching now if you haven't already come find me at test cook on instagram anytime that you make a recipe from one of the shows tag me in it so I can share it with everyone we all want to see it and don't forget to subscribe see you next time

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 400,061

Keywords: whats eating dan, cooks illustrated, americas test kitchen, food science, cooking, cooking questions, sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, roasted sweet potatoes

Id: tXe46NpwA6k

Length: 6min 29sec (389 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020