The same dish practically made the same way by both great grandmothers!  That means it’s gotta be good!  Granny basted her sweet potatoes with bacon drippings, Mom Hitch basted hers with lard. Granny used an iron skillet, Mom Hitch cooked them in a black bread pan.  Granny also probably made them a time or two in a wood stove, and Mom moved on to an electric stove in later years.

This picture was taken of Lula Kinnison Bennett in 1946 or 1947. She was in her early thirties then with two teenage kids, Howard, 18 and in the Navy, and Agnes (now Annette), 16 and in high school in Louisville, Kentucky. Aunt Aggie says she made these baked sweet potatoes even then. Granny cooked this every year when the whole family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s one of the kids’ favorites.
Before moving to Louisville, Granny was raised in Custer, Kentucky about 84 miles northwest of Columbia where Mom Hitch lived. Some recipes stretched across the miles even without the internet!
Lorena and Edna remember that every Wednseday was wash day in Mom Hitch’s house, (In the 1970’s she washed her little dog, Huckleberry, with the leftover rinse water.) and that was also the day she baked sweet potatoes.
Every morning after breakfast, after the dishes were washed, the sweet potatoes were washed and put in the black bread pan (that is still in the kitchen to this day) to bake in the woodstove. The lard she basted them with was rendered from the hogs that dad killed.  She turned them over and over as she basted and tested their doneness by pushing on them with her finger. The lucky recipients of this dish ate peeling and all.

Wash potatoes well. Rub each potato generously with bacon drippings or lard. (You can substitute with another oil if you wish but they won’t be like Granny’s or Mom Hitch’s!) In an iron skillet, bake whole sweet potatoes uncovered for 1 hour at 350-375º F.  Turn potatoes after half an hour and spoon drippings over potatoes. Large potatoes may take a little longer. They will be very soft to the touch when done and will melt in your mouth when you eat them!

Side Dishes, 2004