hen my kids come to the table
for Thanksgiving dinner in a few
weeks, they will likely put three
things on their plates: a Parker House roll,
cranberry sauce and...never mind, that’s it.
I was going to say mashed potatoes, but
they don’t really like those enough to bother
taking any. They will probably take a second
and a third roll, and then they’ll ask to be
excused until the pie shows up. If I were
a better parent, I’d make them eat turkey
and green beans, but I want them to love
Thanksgiving as much as I do, so I usually
let them have whatever weird version of
the meal makes them happy.
What my girls don’t know is that on
tables across America, kids their age (and
adults) will be eating a side dish that’s more
dessert-like than anything they could
ever imagine: mashed sweet potatoes
smothered with toasted marshmallows.
I know it’s a Thanksgiving tradition, but I’ve
never served it because, one, I think putting
pillows of sugar on top of a root vegetable is
absurd, and two, my kids, upon learning that
this dish somehow qualifies as a vegetable,
would eat nothing else ever again.
By most accounts, the recipe for this odd
casserole has been around for more than
100 years, appearing for the first time in
1917 in a promotional recipe booklet for
Angelus Marshmallows. The company wanted
people to cook with marshmallows more
often, and that included melting them all
over the nearest tuber. The recipe booklet
was sort of like an old-fashioned version of
a social media food story: “OMG 27 Totally
Insane Things to Do with Marshmallows.
Dinner Plans: Made!”
America has had a love-hate relationship
with sweet potato casserole for about as long
as the dish has been in existence, and we’re
still divided: In a recent poll, 42 percent
of you said you love it and 42 percent hate it
(16 percent are undecided). Around here, we
are generally haters: Between our launch in
2008 and Thanksgiving 2018, we published
only one version of the recipe. This year we
decided to finally give the marshmallow-
topped-sweet-potato lovers the attention
they deserve: We challenged our test kitchen
chefs to dream up three new recipes using
the combo (see page 58). If those aren’t sweet
Maile Carpenter
Editor in Chief
@maile__fnmag
FOOD^PHOTO:^ RALPHSMITH;^ FOODSTYLING:^ BARRETTWASHBURNE.CARPENTER:TRAVISHUGGETT.14 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ●NOVEMBER 2019
editor’s letter