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Com slash DoB's media. In 1986, British author Hillary Spurling published Eleanor Fettie Place's receipt book,

Elizabethan Country House Cooking, source from a recipe compilation dating to 1604.

The text had been passed down through Spurling's husband's side of the family

for over three centuries beginning with Fettie Place's death around 1647.

The heirloom is a fascinating time capsule of early 17th century Elizabeth in England and is notable

for being an early Western reference to an ingredient from the so-called

New World, the Sweet Potato. Often confused for yams, which originate in Africa,

sweet potatoes are from South America in what is now modern-day Ecuador.

The plants are fully distinct.

And despite the moniker, the sweet potato is only a distant relative of the less nutritious

regular potato, celebrated by Irish Americans like it's Larry Bird or some shit.

The versatile tuber has become a mainstay of cuisine worldwide in both savory mains and sweet treat desserts,

and in Japan has even distilled into alcohol

called Shoshu. And its global prominence is not just due to European colonialism.

Anthropological evidence indicates sweet potatoes migrated to the Pacific islands centuries before

Fetta Place wrote of the then novel Root Vegetable.

Fetta Place would be confused by much of our modern world.

Just imagine her trying to play Elden Ring on PlayStation 5. I find that game quite difficult

and it's normal to me. But Fett a place would hopefully be delighted that her personal collection

...