How To Tell if Sweet Potatoes Are Bad <\/span> <\/h2>\n Ever sliced open a sweet potato only to find white specks or strange patches inside? White specks are usually just concentrated starches or crystalline sugars and are totally safe to eat. But white or black splotches? That\u2019s a sign your potato is past its prime, according to Skokan.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSweet potatoes are root vegetables like carrots and beets, which means they\u2019re still alive after they\u2019re harvested,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re always fighting to battle off potential infections, like mold or bacteria.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Large white or black patches\u2014especially if there are several\u2014could mean the potato is struggling to stay viable. If it\u2019s just a small spot or bruise on an otherwise firm sweet potato, Skokan says you can cut around it. But if it smells off, feels mushy, is oozing liquid, or looks shriveled, it\u2019s time to toss.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Are Sprouted Sweet Potatoes Safe To Eat? <\/span> <\/h2>\n Unlike white potatoes (which are part of the nightshade family and can be toxic if sprouted), sweet potato sprouts are safe\u2014and even edible. In fact, you can roast them or toss them in a stir-fry like spinach.\n<\/p>\n
Or you can grow your own sweet potato plant. All you have to do is let the sprouts grow four to five inches, root them in water, and plant them in the ground.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n How To Pick the Best Sweet Potatoes <\/span> <\/h2>\n <\/p>\nDotdash Meredith Food Studios<\/p>\n
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When it comes to flavor and texture, bigger isn\u2019t always better. You might not find Skokan\u2019s fingerling sweet potatoes at your local grocery store, but even medium-sized ones (about 8 to 12 ounces) can be sweeter and creamier than their oversized counterparts.\n<\/p>\n
Skinnier sweet potatoes are great for roasting whole or slicing into wedges. Larger ones tend to be starchier, making them better for mashing or fries.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n How To Store Sweet Potatoes Properly <\/span> <\/h2>\n\n<\/figure>\n Size also affects shelf life. Larger sweet potatoes are more shelf-stable, Skokan says, because they have more internal \u201cresources\u201d to help them stay dormant. That\u2019s why large potatoes are a common sight at the grocery store.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThink of it like a bear hibernating in the fall. A bear needs to put on a ton of weight so it can hibernate and use that weight as its energy source to stay alive during its hibernation.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
A grapefruit-sized sweet potato can last four to six months at room temperature, while golf-ball-sized varieties dry out much faster. For smaller or fingerling varieties, Skokan recommends storing them in the fridge to keep them from drying out too quickly.\n<\/p>\n
Bottom line: trust your senses. If your sweet potato smells funky, feels mushy, or has spots that make you nervous, it\u2019s okay to let it go\u2014and grab a fresh one for your next sheet-pan dinner or holiday mash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sweet potatoes are everywhere during the holidays. They\u2019re mashed into casseroles, roasted on sheet pans, and baked into pies. But while they\u2019re a seasonal favorite, one mystery seems to pop up year after year: How do you actually know when a sweet potato has gone bad? We tapped someone who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}