Sweet Potato Pone, Mrs. Y. Kirkpatrick-Howat

As of this post, the Old Line Plate database has 14 different “pone” recipes in it. These fall into three basic categories: straight-up corn pone, old-fashioned pone containing molasses (usually also containing cornmeal or just ‘meal’), and sweet potato pone.

According to the “Post & Courier” of Charleston, SC, sweet potato pone evokes a special sentimentality in the South.

“Pone nostalgia isn’t a modern phenomenon. The dish is so associated with the region that Rebel Yell bourbon in the 1960s burnished its Southern credentials by offering buyers a free recipe booklet featuring sweet potato pone. It also was the object of sentimentalism in sweet potato-flush Charleston as far back as 1918.” – Hanna Raskin, Post & Courier, 2015

A 1911 recipe in a Frederick newspaper refers to Sweet Potato Pone as “a Virginia dish” which will be an “acceptable change,” but recipes for Sweet Potato Pone appeared in Maryland as early as 1873 with “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.”

Mrs. B.C. Howard’s Sweet Potato Pone, “50 Years in a Maryland Kitchen”

The recipe that I used comes from “Maryland’s Way” via Mrs. Y. Kirkpatrick-Howat. Maiden name Lauraine Speich, Mrs. Kirkpatrick-Howat was married to Yvone Kirkpatrick-Howat.

“Mr. Kirkpatrick-Howat – whose first name is Scottish for Ivan – was born in Baltimore and raised downtown on St. Paul Street and in Mexico, where his father supervised construction of a portion of the Pan-American Highway…

In 1947, Mr. Kirkpatrick-Howat moved to Contee Farms, which his mother had purchased in 1917. Part of the farm had been owned by John Contee, a naval hero of the War of 1812.” – Baltimore Sun Obituary, 2003

Remains of the Contee house after fire, photographed in 1971 by the Maryland Historical Trust

Mrs. Kirkpatrick-Howat passed away in 2009. She had been a 2nd Lieutenant nurse in World War II and “traveled throughout the world with a particular interest in the cultures of Central America.”

The Kirkpatrick-Howats are remembered most for their involvement in the restoration of London Town and Gardens, a reconstructed colonial seaport with a museum and archaeology lab.

This passable Sweet Potato Pone recipe took little effort when the peeled sweet potato was grated in the food processor. It did not require boiling, and cooked up plenty tender. I have an excess of cinnamon sugar left over from doughnuts, so things like this are a good way to unload some of it.

This will not be my last sweet potato pone. Aside from the fact that sweet potato is one of my favorite foods, the dish has had a special significance in African American Maryland cooking. In the next few weeks I’ll explore at least one of the two recipes from “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County” or one of the recipes printed in the Baltimore Afro-American over the years.

Who knows, maybe I’ll just bake my way through all 14 pone recipes. Can anyone think of a good pone pun to rename the blog?

Recipe:

.25 Cup butter, softened (please do a better job of this than I did)
.5 Cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 Cup grated sweet potato
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon
.5 Teaspoon ginger
.5 Teaspoon mace
1 dash cinnamon
.5 Cup milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and sweet potato. Beat well. Add citrus zest, spices, and milk, beating all together. Pour into a buttered odish and bake at 350° for 1 hour. “Good with roast duck or roast pork.”

Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way”