The Science of Good Food by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim
explains the mysteries of food and cooking. Check out topics
like Caviar; Extracts; and Sweet Potatoes; plus recipes,
including Acorn Squash Filled with Pumpkin Seed Risotto and
Roasted Root Vegetables. Sweet potatoes are not potatoes. Both
are New World vegetables but they are from different botanical
families. They aren't even the same type of vegetable. Potatoes
are tubers (underground stems). Sweet potatoes are
roots—specifically the root of a morning glory. Crew members on
Columbus's first trip to the Americas were the first Europeans
to taste a sweet potato. They called it by its Haitian name,
batata. Later European explorers started calling the white
potato batata, leading to centuries of confusion. The sweet
potato is native to Peru, where it was cultivated before the
time of the Incas. By the 13th century, it was a staple food in
Central America and the Caribbean, and there is evidence that it
traveled as far west as New Zealand before the