“The Most Delicate Rootes”: Sweet Potatoes and the English Consumption of the “New World” Reassessed, c. 1580-1650

Abstract

Sweet potatoes have rarely been the focus of historical interest, in part due to the difficulty in researching the nebulous word “potato” and the fact that they were never grown in England on such a scale as to have made the same impact on diets as the “ordinary” potato. Nevertheless, as one of the first foods from the Americas to arrive in England in the sixteenth century, this root is revealing of the reception and perception of the “New World” and its goods at the cusp of English colonialism. This study demonstrates that the sweet potato was an expensive exotic novelty in elite English foodways, and thereby reassesses our understanding of the place of Indigenous American foods in the English luxury market. Furthermore, it argues that methods of sweet potato consumption are evidence of the integration of Indigenous culinary practices and knowledge in English cuisine.