The Reason You Should Consider Rinsing Canned Sweet Potatoes
Canned sweet potatoes will help you expedite the long and tedious process involved in preparing and cooking sweet potatoes. They come cut into chunks or rounds that are already soft, tender, and ready to eat on the spot. Whether you eat them out of the can or incorporate them into a more elaborate recipe, rinsing off the sweet potatoes beforehand is more of a necessity than a suggestion.
Like most canned products, sweet potatoes come floating in canning liquid, which is key to their preservation. In the case of sweet potatoes, the canning liquid is a sugary syrup that helps to prevent their natural sugars from leaching out while they sit on your pantry shelf. Syrupy canning liquid helps maintain the equilibrium of sweetness in sweet potatoes as well as their bright color. However, the syrup is no longer necessary once you take the sweet potatoes out of the can because their natural sugars have been preserved. Leaving the syrup on the yams can hamper their taste.
Rinsing sweet potatoes of any leftover sugary film will uphold their integrity, giving you the most authentic sweet potato taste and texture. Most sweet potato recipes value the natural taste and texture of the yam first and foremost, adding sugar or seasonings separately instead of incorporating the canning liquid.
Canned sweet potato ideas
Canned sweet potatoes have countless uses, from being blended into brownie or muffin batter to getting baked into a classic marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving. Even in a classic candied yam recipe, canned sweet potatoes will save you at least twenty minutes of peeling and slicing. All you have to do is cover them with brown sugar, butter, and any other desired baking spices, then throw them in the oven.
One thing to keep in mind with canned sweet potatoes is that they are softer than their raw counterparts and are best suited for mashed or other soft applications. Therefore, the majority of canned sweet potato recipes are for casseroles, batters, or pureed soups. They will add richness and thickness to cookies and bread, and they're also the perfect substitute for savory potatoes in a gnocchi batter. Whether you use them in a sweet or savory recipe, a squeeze of lemon juice or a pinch of salt will enhance and complement their natural flavors.
Since the canning liquid is essentially simple syrup, you can reserve it after you drain your sweet potatoes for use as a sweetener. If you don't have molasses or brown sugar, you can use the reserved syrup along with butter, citrus juice, and spices to create the basting liquid and syrup for candied yams.