How To Preserve Sweet Potatoes

Enjoy learning How To Preserve Sweet Potatoes in this step-by-step guide, including expert tips on 3 different methods. With these freezing, dehydrating, and canning techniques, you’ll keep your sweet potatoes fresh for months!

Preserving Guide: How To Preserve Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are nutritious, versatile, and delicious, but knowing how to preserve them properly can mean the difference between enjoying them for months or watching them spoil within weeks.

Whether you’ve grown your own sweet potato harvest or bought them in bulk, mastering these preservation techniques will help you enjoy these orange, delicious gems year-round while saving money and reducing food waste.

When To Harvest Sweet Potatoes

They are ready to harvest just as the ends of the vines begin to turn yellow.

How To Store Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes should only be stored at room temperature.

Dehydrating Sweet Potatoes

• CUT: Peel and cut into thin strips or slice about 1⁄4-inch thick
• DIPPING: Rinse in cold water. Water or steam blanch, and rinse well again.
  • Water blanch: 5-6 minutes
  • Steam blanch: 6-8 minutes
• DEHYDRATOR: 8-12 hours
• APPEARANCE WHEN DRY: crisp

Canning Sweet Potatoes

QUANTITY: An average of 17-1/2 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 50 pounds and yields 17 to 25 quarts – an average of 2-1/2 pounds per quart.

PREPARE SWEET POTATOES

• Wash potatoes and boil or steam until partially soft (15 to 20 minutes).
• Remove skins.
• Cut medium potatoes, if needed, so that pieces are uniform in size.
• Caution: Do not mash or puree pieces.

CANNING SWEET POTATOES

1. Fill jars, leaving 1-inch headspace.
2. Add 1 teaspoon salt per quart to the jar, if desired.
3. Cover with your choice of fresh boiling water or syrup, leaving 1-inch headspace.
4. Adjust lids and process in a Pressure Canner – 65 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.

Freezing Sweet Potatoes

PREPARING SWEET POTATOES

• Choose medium to large sweet potatoes that have been cured for at least one week.
• Sort according to size and wash.
• Cook until almost tender in water, in steam, in a pressure cooker, or in the oven.
• Let stand at room temperature until cool.

UNBAKED

1. Peel sweet potatoes, cut in halves, slice or mash.
2. If desired, to prevent darkening, dip whole sweet potatoes or slices for 5 seconds in a solution of 1/2 cup lemon juice to 1 quart water.
3. To keep mashed sweet potatoes from darkening, mix 2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice with each quart of mashed sweet potatoes.
4. Pack into containers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.
5. Seal and freeze.

BAKED

1. Wash, trim and heat potatoes in oven at 350°F without peeling, until slightly soft.
2. Cool, remove peel, and wrap individually in aluminum foil.
3. Place in polyethylene bags and freeze.
4. Complete the baking in an oven at 350°F immediately before serving, leaving the potatoes wrapped in foil.