If the potatoes are of good size pare them before cooking, split lengthwise and steam them until done. Turn them into a baking pan, sprinkle with salt, moisten with spoonfuls of fat from the roast meat pan and bake them a handsome brown. Sweet potatoes will not bake to a rich color and be really good unless they are first steamed or boiled thoroughly done. Thin and stringy potatoes can be steamed first and peeled afterward.
Whitehead’s Family Cook Book, 1891