Aulstons Southern Sweet Potato Pie

Introduction

Sweet potato pie appears in the Southern United States from the early Colonial days. This pie was likely developed by African- American slaves from traditional African Culinary influence's as an alternative to the African yam, making it a staple of soul food today.  Recipes for sweet potato pie first appeared in printed cookbooks. In the 18th century, it was included with a savory vegetable dish. By the 19th century sweet potato pie was commonly classified as a dessert. 

Scientific background: 

Sweetened condensed milk is a mixture of whole milk with 40 to 50 percent of sugar with most of the water removed. Its rich and thick with a caramel color and it has super sweet flavor. Sweet Condensed milk was first invented in the mid-1800s by an American entrepreneur Gail Borden. Before he condensed milk was made there was a milk called “swill milk”. Swill milk is a disgusting bluish liquid collected from cows. Inspired by swill milk Borden came up with a way to sterilize and store milk. By 1856  his canned milk was legal. Evaporated milk was made by boiling regular cow’s milk and 60% of water is heated away. This milk is thin and less caramel color than regular milk. Evaporated milk can be used for different recipes mostly used for savory or creamy dishes. The 4 molecules that are in milk are shown below. 

Molecules in Milk
lactose	water	fat	protein

 

Lactose is the sugar that makes the milk sweet and when most of the water is removed, like for sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk, the milk will be sweeter.  

 

When milk is warm it tastes better. This is because of lactose. Lactose is the main sugar in milk and it  

Makes up about 4.9% of milk. When lactose is cooked at higher temperatures, the sugar becomes more 

Soluble in milk and makes the milk have an extra sweet taste. 

 

Hypothesis:  I think the sweetened condensed milk will make the pie sweet without having to add sugar. 

Data/Results 

	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 2
Type of milk	Evaporated milk	Sweetened condensed milk	Whole milk
Experimental Procedure	½ cup of soft butter ½ cup of sugar 2 eggs ¾ cups of evaporated milk 2 cups of mashed potatoes 1 tsp of ground cinnamon ½ of nutmeg ½ of salt	The same as before but with the condensed milk	The same as before
Observations	The graham pie crust is getting a little brown tint it took 15 min then it started rising slowly with a brownish color	Still the same the edges around the graham cracker were brown	Put the temp on a low bake it started rising slowly and it didn’t take long
Results	An orange brownish color	Orange brownish color but a little soft	Orange colored

 

Analysis and Conclusion: 

In the data the evaporated milk and the sweetened condensed milk took longer to cook mainly because 

We added a little too much of milk. As the pie is baking the graham cracker was getting brown and it was 

Sizzling a little. The pie that was cooked with the whole milk I notice that when I lightly it started to get 

Tiny crack’s in the pie. The whole milk made the pie be a little loose and some of the pie crust fell apart. 

 

Next, the color. As we see in the background section the color stayed the same. The only difference is at 

The top of the pie was a light brownish tint, but nothing really changed. 

 

 

Recipe: 

½ cup of soft butter 

½ cup of sugar 

2 eggs 

¾ cups of evaporated, condensed and whole milk 

2 cups of mashed potatoes 

1 tablespoon of vanilla abstract 

½ tablespoons of ground cinnamon 

½ of nutmeg 

½ of salt