Chase's Southern A%# Candied Yams

Chase's Southern A%# Candied Yams

Background Information

In the 45 years that he studied sweet potatoes, George Washington Carver did this discovery. There were about four dozen comments. Many of these recipes are useful, like Thanksgiving's ubiquitous candied "yams." If you've ever sat down for a holiday meal in eastern North Carolina, you've seen your share of the marshmallow-topped candied yams. Cloying, mushy, canned sweet potatoes are often bobbed in rusty, sugar syrup.

A medium sized (boiled skinless) sweet potato contains 27 grams of carbs. Starches are the main components and constitute 53% of the carb material. 32% of the carb content is composed of simple sugars, such as glucose fructose, sucrose and maltose. 

Let's start with the fundamental fact: Although they are commonly referred to as "yams," originating in Africa and Asia, the root here is the sweet potato that is native to the USA. We could be more precise and name these "candied sweet potatoes" and many people do, but "yams" still seems to be the more common term used.

The water dissolves the simple sugars in the sweet potatoes so the amount of water can affect the outcome of your dish.

Hypothesis

As the amount of water increases, the sweetness of the candied yams will increase.

Procedure

The dependent variable for this process was the amount of water used. All ingredient amounts, methods, temperatures, and cooking times were the same. The amount of water is displayed in  the table below.

Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 2
No water	1 cup of water	2 cups of water

1. Peel and cut 4 sweet potatoes and place the cut sweet potatoes into the pot
2. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar then add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and a stick of butter
3. Add 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon and add 1 tablespoon of vanilla
4. Set the stove to a medium flame and let cook for 45 mins

Data/Results

Amount of Water	No Water	1 cup of water	2 cups of water
Notes While Cooking	After 30 mins of the medium heat the sweet potatoes produce a sweet liquid also the butter melts.	After 20 mins on medium heat the following has happened: the butter has melted, the water is boiling and the sweet potatoes produced a sweet liquid. However, the liquid was sweeter than trial 1’s liquid.	Same as trial 2. However, the liquid was sweeter than both trials 1 and 2.
End results	The sweet potatoes are now dark orange and sit in a dark syrup like liquid also the liquid is sweet.	The sweet potatoes are lighter than trial 1’s sweet potatoes and so is the liquid. However the liquid taste sweeter than trial 1’s.	The sweet potatoes are lighter than trial 2’s sweet potatoes and so is the liquid. However the liquid taste way sweeter than trial 1 and trial 2’s liquid.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the water makes the dish more sweet then what it started off as. This is because the water dissolves the sugas faster b/c water is polar so the negative and positive charges of surround the opposite of each charge in the sweet potatoes making the sugars less simple.