In today's Claire Chats video, I am cooking Buttered Sweet Potatoes from Elinor Fettiplaces's Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking edited and modernized by Hilary Spurling. The original book was compiled by Lady Elinor Fettiplace from Oxfordshire in 1604 and it's a treasure trove of Tudor recipes divided into the months of the year. In the October section, I found a recipe entitled "To Butter Potato Roots" and that's what I have made.
Take the roots & boile them in water, till they bee verie soft, then peele them & slice them, then put some rosewater to them & sugar & the pill of an orenge, & some of the juice of the orenge, so let them boile a good while, then put some butter to them, & when the butter is melted serve them. This way you bake them, but put them unboiled into the paste.
Hilary Spurling suggests using 2 lb/900g sweet potatoes, 2tbsp rosewater (I used orange flower water but you could also use vanilla essence if you didn't have rosewater), 2 rounded tablespoons brown sugar, and the grated rind and juice of 1 orange.
Our family loved the results!