HOW ARE YAMS AND SWEET POTATOES DIFFERENT?

[elleng]

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YAMS AND SWEET POTATOES?

'Are sweet potatoes the same as yams? No… and yes. When orange sweet potatoes were first introduced, grocery stores called them “yams.” Why the confusion? Let’s get to the root of this matter—and give you the scoop on the difference between yams and sweet potatoes!

HOW ARE YAMS AND SWEET POTATOES DIFFERENT?
Yams and sweet potatoes are confused. Literally and botanically speaking, the two are not related.

Both the yam and the sweet potato DO grow underground and have yellowish-orange flesh, but there the similarity ends; they are not the same plant species.

YAMS VS. SWEET POTATOES

What are yams?

Yams are big edible “tubers” that are categorized as monocots (plants having one embryonic seed leaf) and belong to the genus Dioscorea.
Yams grow in tropical and subtropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa and the Caribbean. According to horticulturist U. P. Hedrick, the word yam means “to eat” in the dialect of Guinea. . .

What are sweet potatoes?

Sweet potatoes are edible “roots” that are categorized as dicots (plants having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.
They are native to the Americas, growing best in both tropical and warm temperate regions. The sweet potato has long been a favorite crop in the United States, especially in the Southeast. Over 50% of the country’s sweet potatoes are grown in North Carolina.'>>>

https://www.almanac.com/sweet-potatoes-yams-difference?

[Oppaloopa]

1. How do we cook these large yams?

[TBA]

2. As a Southnern girl I don't know nuthin' about yams

But I grew up on sweet potatoes and the best way to cook 'em is to bake in their jackets like a baked potato and when very soft peal off the jacket and slather with butter.

Less is more IMO.

[wnylib]

5. I couldn't agree more about how

to cook and eat them. No need for syrups, sugar, or (yuk) marshmallows. It would be gilding the lily.

Sweet potatoes are delicious with just butter and a little salt. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[BComplex]

6. Don't forget some brown sugar and cinnamon!

[SheltieLover]

17. Add a bit of Madagascar vanila!

[wnylib]

4. Don't know about yams. I have

always bought sweet potatoes that are mislabeled as yams in grocery stores. We had them in the house often when I was a child and baked them in their skins, like you would bake a white potato. That's the way I cook them today, except that I do them in the microwave.

I tried a real yam once. Didn't like it. Yams are yellower than sweet potatoes, grainier in texture, and not as sweet.

But although I prefer the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes over yams, I hate the syrups, sugars, and marshmallows added to them in some recipes. I tried stocking up on canned sweet potatoes in case of a shutdown, but could only get them canned in syrup, which I will rinse off before heating and eating them.

Sweet potatoes are a rich source of vitamin A. Yams might be, too. Don't know.

[druidity33]

3. Um... taste?

And they look different too. I had to SEARCH for a yam when i wanted to try one. Asian food market was where i found them, but the local supermarket said they could order them. They don't peel well with a peeler... needs a sharp blade. They are whiter, starchier(kinda like taro), bigger, and drier. They are not as smooth/creamy as a sweetpotato. Tasty though.

[thesquanderer]

15. yes, Japanese yam is whiter, but very tasty... more like chestnuts than a regular SP. (n/t)

[japple]

7. I think they are best when baked in the oven like white potatoes, served with butter.

I also like them cubed and roasted in the oven with olive oil, cumin and chili powder. https://www.rachelcooks.com/2017/10/18/oven-roasted-sweet-potatoes/

INGREDIENTS
3 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2 to 3/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place sweet potato cubes in a bowl and pour olive oil on the top. Sprinkle with spices and salt. Toss to coat using a spoon or rubber spatula until all potatoes are evenly coated with spices.
Spread potatoes into a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes, stir, and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes or until crisp on outside and tender on inside.
NOTES

[Woodwizard]

10. I cook them that way too

Now that I have an air fryer I do them in that they come out so good!

[chwaliszewski]

8. Another big difference between yams and sweet potatoes is...

the spelling. One only has four letters and the other has thirteen. Just saying.

[Midnightwalk]

9. Ummmm

“One only has four letters”.

No. One yam has 3 letters.

[chwaliszewski]

18. 'Yams', not 'yam'.

[Delmette2.0]

11. I'm from a Yams family.

Mom always did the brown sugar (sparingly) and marshmallows. I found a recipe that called for brown sugar, apple chunks and pecans. I have made a yam souffle that is wonderful.

Different strokes for different folk.

[central scrutinizer]

13. I yam what I yam

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[hlthe2b]

14. i grew up KNOWING everything we ate was a sweet potato. My Dad--no horticulturalist knew

the difference and we never heard "yam" in my house. (in fact, my sister and I knew tomatoes were "fruit" way before we were old enough to argue the point, but that's another story. )

On the other hand, sweet potatoes were beloved in their own form with a little butter. Never slathered in brown sugar and marshmallows, peeled of its healthy skin and served up as a "vegetable side dish," rather than the dessert it actually was. Sometimes this showed up at my Grandmother's Thanksgiving dinner, though not from her. So, this is at least one high-calorie dish that I am fortunate to have never developed a taste for.

That said, I LOVE sweet potatoes--just as they are.

[Auggie]

16. Nearly anything you see in a supermarket is a sweet potato. MORE INFO HERE:

https://www.casweetpotatoes.com/basics-and-faqs

They may be labeled "yam" in the store, but its actually a sweetpotato. They come in a variety of colors too.

Orange skin and red skin = orange flesh (flesh is generally more moist).

Yellow/gold skin or purple skin - white flesh (drier than orange flesh -- more like a white russet potato).

Buy ones grown in California if you can (Costco is known to carry them on the East and West coasts). They're better.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa.

So it's a safe guess that it was either African slaves or the slavers who brought them that started referring to American sweet potatoes as "yams", just as English immigrants referred to an American red-breasted thrush (Turdus migratorius) as a "robin", because it so closely resembles the English robin, a type of flycatcher, with which they were previously familiar.

And don't get me started on "pennies".

In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate between the two. African slaves had already been calling the ‘soft’ sweet potatoes ‘yams’ because they resembled the yams in Africa. Thus, ‘soft’ sweet potatoes were referred to as ‘yams’ to distinguish them from the ‘firm’ varieties.

https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/agriculture/item/what-is-the-difference-between-sweet-potatoes-and-yams/

Interestingly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term “yam” to be accompanied by the term “sweet potato.” Also, the preferred wording from the state sweet potato commissions seems to be “sweetpotato” (one word). Apparently, the reasoning is that it’s a unique crop, not a potato that happens to be sweet (sweet potatoes aren’t related to potatoes, either—but that’s another story).

https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/agriculture/item/what-is-the-difference-between-sweet-potatoes-and-yams/