How do I distinguish sweet potatoes from yam?

Question

Dear Veggie Experts...
I buy sweet potatoes, but I have a feeling that I'm chewing on yam...
I yam not going to put up with it! Any one know an easy way to undisguise the yams that think they're sweet potatoes?

Answer 1

By and large, yams are not availalbe in the USA. What we buy here called Yams, are really Sweet Potatoes.
Yams are found mostly in Africa.

Answer 2

Yam or sweet potato, what in the world is it? Many people use these terms interchangeably both in conversation and in cooking, but they are really two different vegetables.

Sweet Potatoes
Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called "yam" in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture.

Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and Velvet.

Yams
The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato.

Slowly becoming more common in US markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over 150 varieties available worldwide.

Generally sweeter than than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length.

The word yam comes from African words njam, nyami, or djambi, meaning "to eat," and was first recorded in America in 1676.

The yam tuber has a brown or black skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Yams contain more natural sugar than sweet potatoes and have a higher moisture content. They are also marketed by their Spanish names, boniato and ñame.

Answer 3

Yams are gigantic. They grow in Africa, and believe me... they are YUCK! To acquire these, you'll have to go to a specialty store, like one that specializes in African foods. And you'll need to cook them forever. Plus, they are not very sweet. What we call "Yams" in this country, are actually "Carolina Yams" which is another word for, yep you guessed it, sweet potatos. So if you buy "candied yams" in a jar, they're actually just sweet potatoes. In the South, people often call sweet potatos "yams." But real yams are impossible to find down there.

Answer 4

Yams come from Africa. All the sweet potatoes in the United States are potatoes. It was a slang African slaves gave sweet potatoes because they resembled the tubers from Africa. Yes, I watch too much food channel.

Answer 5

Yams are just sweet potatoes softened to eat.Theres no big difference

Answer 6

there is no difference..............Pronunciation: 'yam
Function: noun
Etymology: earlier iname, from Portuguese inhame & Spanish ñame, of African origin; akin to Fulani nyami to eat
1 : the edible starchy tuberous root of various plants (genus Dioscorea of the family Dioscoreaceae) used as a staple food in tropical areas; also : a plant producing yams
2 : a moist-fleshed and usually orange-fleshed sweet potato

Answer 7

the very light colored skin is the easiest way, yams are always darker.

Answer 8

They are the same thing

Answer 9

arent' they the same thing?

Answer 10

Cute :)