Are fresh yams and sweet potatoes basically the same thing?

Question

I have a recipe for sweet potatoe casserole that calls for fresh baked sweet potatoes. Can I use fresh yams instead? I have always wondered if they are actually the same thing.

Answer 1

Yams and sweet potatoes are actually two different things but they can be used interchangeably in many, if not all, recipes.

Answer 2

You can substitute yams for sweet potatoes, but they are not the same. In fact, they are very different. What most people call sweet potatoes are really yams. This is more to the way they are prepared than the type of potatoe itself, and the fact that yams are more readily available that sweet potatoes.

How can you tell the difference? A true sweet potatoe when cut open is yellow in color, a yam is orange and is softer when cooked. And then there are Jamaican Yams, which are white on the inside, and extremely high in nutrients, but you're not likely to see this in your local market. Jamaican yams are usually sold only in specialty food shops, Caribbean markets and in powdered form in body-building shops.

All are tasty!!!

Answer 3

The orange potato-like vegetable we eat are actually sweet potatoes. But we call them yams or sweet potatoes interchangably. So yes, you can go into the grocery store and buy canned or fresh, sweet potato or yams, it's the same thing. **REAL** yams are hard to find around here. They're from Africa and South East Asia; they are dark, hairy, and reddish. They don't look anything like our sweet potatoes. YOu would have to go looking for them at specialty shops as grocery stores don't generally carry them.

Answer 4

According to what I heard, yams are actually something big that is grown and sold in Africa and what we have in the USA is almost entirely sweet potatoes which are called yams because they look somewhat like them. Virtually everything sold in the USA as Yams and as Sweet Potatoes are a New World plant and are the same thing.

Answer 5

They are actually slightly different in taste and color. One is more yellow - the yam....the sweet potatoe is more orange. I think it should be ok to use one or the other...but I would recommend using a little of both!

Answer 6

fresh yams sweet potatoes basically

Answer 7

sweet potatoes are good. I think they are the same but sp are probably better

Answer 8

They are basically the same thing,,different regions of the country where they are grown...they taste the same..

Answer 9

yams are sweet potatoes with marshmellows baked with them.

Answer 10

Yes, they are basically the same thing.