By ShowMeStepByStepPublished Updated
Based on a video by Smokin' & Grillin with AB.
Candied yams land on every Thanksgiving table in the South, and there are two schools. Baked in the oven under a blanket of marshmallows, or simmered on the stovetop in their own syrup until the rounds go glossy and almost translucent. This is the stovetop version, from Smokin' & Grillin with AB, and it is the one that holds its shine all the way to the table.
Four things carry the dish: butter, two sugars, warm spice, and the juice of an orange. It all happens in one pan, which matters on a day when the oven is already full. The orange is the part people leave out, and it is the part that stops the whole thing tasting like candy.
What American grocery stores sell as yams are sweet potatoes. The bins say yams, the cans say yams, and a true yam is a starchy West African tuber you will almost never meet in a US produce aisle. That mislabel stuck decades ago and nobody has undone it.
None of that changes the recipe. Buy the orange-fleshed ones, usually sold as garnet or jewel, and you have exactly what the syrup wants. The pale white-fleshed sweet potatoes are drier and less sweet, so they take longer to soften and give you a duller dish. If you want them plain instead, cooking sweet potatoes on their own is a different job.
Canned sweet potatoes arrive already cooked. Drop them into hot syrup and you have maybe five minutes before they slump. Drain them hard, leave the canning liquid behind, and treat the time on the stove as warming rather than cooking.
Fresh is the reason you slice. A raw round wants fifteen to twenty minutes on low heat and comes out with an edge that still bites back. Cut a thin slice off one side so the potato lies flat, keep the rounds the same thickness, and every piece finishes at the same moment. Thick rounds survive a long simmer. Thin ones look elegant for about six minutes, then fall apart.
Marshmallows are a topping, not the recipe. If your family expects them, candy the yams on the stovetop as written, move them to a baking dish, scatter mini marshmallows over the top and run it under the broiler for two or three minutes. Watch it. They go from pale to burnt in seconds.
Leave them off and you get a glossier, less sweet dish that tastes more of spice and orange. A lot of Southern cooks will tell you that is the older version. Toasted pecans scattered on at the end do the crunch job without piling on more sugar.
Sweet potatoes are mostly water and they give it up as they cook. Halfway through the simmer your thick syrup looks thinner than it did at the start. That is the potatoes, not a mistake. The real mistake is adding water at the beginning because the pan looks dry.
If it is still loose once the rounds are tender, lift them out with a slotted spoon and boil the syrup on its own for two or three minutes. It tightens fast. Two other culprits:
A wide pan in a single layer candies. A deep pan steams.
These reheat better than most sides. Cook them all the way through, cool, cover and refrigerate up to three days. Reheat covered at 325F for twenty minutes, or over low heat on the stove with a splash of water, turning gently. The syrup sets firm in the fridge and loosens again with heat.
They need salt and fat beside them. Roast turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole hold up the savory end of the plate, and a spoonful of cranberry sauce cuts through the sugar.
9 steps · about 15 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Both sugars, the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, vanilla, a stick of butter and an orange.
Measure the spices before you start. Once the butter is melting, the syrup moves quickly and you do not want to be opening jars one-handed.
Peel two pounds of sweet potatoes.
Wear gloves if you are doing a big batch for a holiday table. It keeps your hands clean and gives you a better grip on a wet potato.
Tip
Pick sweet potatoes of roughly the same thickness. A thin one and a fat one in the same pan give you rounds that finish minutes apart.
Cut a thin slice off one side first so the potato sits flat and stops rolling. That one cut is the difference between safe and not.
Then slice the rest into even rounds. Even thickness means every piece finishes at the same time.
Tip
Thick rounds hold their shape better through a long simmer. Thin ones look elegant and fall apart.
Melt a whole stick of butter in a large pan over medium heat, then add the salt.
Salt this early rather than at the end. It balances what is about to become a very sweet syrup, and stirred in now it dissolves completely.
Add a cup of white sugar and three quarters of a cup of brown sugar to the melted butter.
Two sugars, not one. The white brings clean sweetness and the brown brings molasses depth and the darker colour.
Tip
Pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup. Spooned in loose it can leave you a third short and the syrup never gets thick.
Whisk in the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and vanilla, then the juice of a whole orange.
Keep whisking until it is smooth and glossy. The orange juice thins the syrup slightly and cuts through the sugar, which is exactly what keeps this from tasting like candy.
Tip
Roll the orange hard on the counter before you cut it. It gives up noticeably more juice that way.
Add the sliced sweet potatoes to the pan and turn them through the syrup until every piece is coated.
The pan will look crowded and the syrup will not cover them. That is fine - they release liquid as they cook and the level comes up.
Tip
A wide pan in a single layer candies the rounds. A deep, crowded pan steams them and they break up.
Bring it to a gentle simmer, then turn the heat right down. The syrup is thick, so it will not roll like water.
Turn the pieces every few minutes so the ones on top work their way down into the syrup and the ones underneath come up.
Start checking at eight minutes. They can be ready well before you expect.
Tip
Done means a knife slides in with no resistance while the round still holds its shape. Soft, not collapsing.
Lift the yams into a serving dish, then pour the remaining syrup from the pan over the top.
Do not leave that syrup behind. It is butter, two sugars, spice and orange reduced down, and it is most of the flavour of the dish.
Tip
If the syrup left in the pan looks thin, lift the yams out first and boil it hard for two or three minutes before you pour it over.
Keep going
How to Spatchcock a Turkey
How to Make Southern Candied Yams
How to Make Southern Candied Yams
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Question 1 of 5
Why cut a thin slice off one side of the sweet potato first?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.Why cut a thin slice off one side of the sweet potato first?
Answer: It gives you a flat face so it stops rolling
A potato that rolls under the knife is the main way people cut themselves here.
2.Two sugars go into the syrup instead of one. Why?
Answer: The brown adds molasses depth and colour
White brings clean sweetness and brown brings the depth and darker colour.
3.Salt goes into the butter early rather than at the end. Why?
Answer: It dissolves fully and balances the sweetness
Stirred into the melted butter it disappears completely and offsets a very sweet syrup.
4.The juice of a whole orange goes into the syrup. What does it do?
Answer: It thins the syrup and cuts through the sugar
Without it the dish tips over into tasting like candy.
5.The pan looks crowded and the syrup does not cover the yams. What now?
Answer: Carry on, because they release liquid as they cook
The yams give up their own liquid and the level comes up on its own.
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