📜 Origin story
Who Put Marshmallows on Sweet Potatoes?
The most candy-like dish on the Thanksgiving table probably started as a sales pitch. The famous 1917 booklet behind it is harder to find than the story suggests.
A marshmallow company, most likely. The topping is usually credited to a recipe booklet from Angelus Marshmallows around 1917, written by Boston cooking teacher Janet McKenzie Hill to make marshmallows an everyday ingredient. Food historian Sarah Lohman could not find a copy of that booklet, though, and the earliest version she found was in a 1918 trade journal.
Sweet sweet potatoes came first
Americans were sugaring this vegetable long before marshmallows. Mental Floss points to a sweetened potato pudding in Amelia Simmons's "American Cookery" (1796) and candied sweet potatoes in the first edition of the "Boston Cooking School Cookbook" in 1896.
So by the early 1900s, a sweet potato that tasted almost like dessert was already normal. What changed was the candy on top.
The 1917 booklet story
The usual telling: Angelus Marshmallows, a candy maker, wanted home cooks to buy marshmallows all year instead of as an occasional treat. Its marketers hired Janet McKenzie Hill, who founded the Boston Cooking-School Magazine, to write a booklet of recipes built around them.
Among them, Mental Floss reports, was mashed sweet potatoes baked under a marshmallow topping, which Saveur has called the earliest known recipe of its kind. Tasting Table adds that Angelus, later renamed Campfire, kept a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole in its booklets in 1930 and 1950.
The missing booklet
Here is the catch. Sarah Lohman, who writes about historic American recipes at Four Pounds Flour, wrote in 2013 that the 1917 recipe "allegedly" comes from the Angelus booklet, but she had not been able to find a copy to check.
The earliest version she had seen ran in a 1918 trade journal called "Sweet Potatoes and Yams." So the fair version is that the dish is credited to a marshmallow company's recipe booklet around 1917, and the candy business was pushing it by 1918 either way.
How it reached the Thanksgiving table
No document marks the moment it became a holiday dish. The repeated booklet editions kept it in front of home cooks for decades, and sweet potatoes were already a Thanksgiving side, so the marshmallow version slid into the spot.
Our sweet potato casserole with marshmallows cooks the potatoes in butter and cream, then browns halved marshmallows in a hot oven. If you prefer your sweet potatoes in a crust, our Southern sweet potato pie is the other way the South serves them. Find both, and the rest of the menu, on our Thanksgiving recipes page and in the mashed potatoes hub.
Questions people ask
Was Angelus the first company to mass-produce marshmallows?
Some articles say so, but accounts differ on when and by whom marshmallows were first mass-made in America, so we do not make that claim.
Who was Janet McKenzie Hill?
A Boston cooking authority who founded the Boston Cooking-School Magazine. The marshmallow booklet is credited to her, though no copy has surfaced for historians to check.
Are the sweet potatoes in the casserole really yams?
Almost always, no. Illinois Extension explains that true yams belong to an unrelated plant family; the soft, orange sweet potatoes Americans call yams got the name to set them apart from firmer varieties, and USDA requires a "yam" label to say sweet potato too.
Parts of this history are disputed. Where sources disagree, we say so.
Sources
- Michele Debczak, "Why Do We Serve Marshmallows on Sweet Potatoes?", Mental Floss, November 11, 2022
- Sarah Lohman, "Origin of a Dish: Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows," Four Pounds Flour, November 25, 2013
- Lauren Rothman, "The Historic Origins Of Marshmallow-Topped Sweet Potatoes," Tasting Table, October 23, 2022
- Ken Johnson, "What's the difference between sweet potatoes and yams?", University of Illinois Extension, Good Growing, November 25, 2019
More food facts
Cook it
Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
Sweet potatoes cooked down in butter and cream instead of water, mashed with a little cream cheese, then covered with halved marshmallows and baked in a hot oven until they puff and brown.
Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Silky sweet potato custard made with brown sugar, butter, sour cream, extra yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg and an optional splash of bourbon, baked in a crust lined with a thin layer of caramelized brown sugar.
Classic American Mashed Potatoes
Whole russets simmered in their skins, peeled hot and riced, then stirred with melted butter first and warm half-and-half second for a fluffy, creamy holiday mash.
Classic Roast Thanksgiving Turkey
The plain American centerpiece: a buttered, salted and peppered turkey roasted breast side down first, flipped, and finished breast side up until the thermometer reads 165°F. No basting, no fuss.
Southern Cornbread Dressing
A pan of cornbread baked, crumbled while hot and mixed with sausage, onion, bell pepper and celery, poultry seasoning, broth, milk and eggs, then baked in ridges with butter brushed on top until crisp outside and almost creamy inside.