Sweet potato or Yam?

Question

is there a difference or are they the same?

Answer 1

In the United States we call sweet potatoes yams, but in fact yams are a completely different vegetable. True yams are tropical tubers with brown skin and white, purple or red flesh and are somewhat sweeter than a sweet potato. They are not even distantly related to the sweet potato, which has paler skin and bright orange flesh.

Genuine yams are difficult to find in the U.S, but they're becoming more readily available. Varieties include the Japanese Kotobuki.

Answer 2

You got the correct answer(s) already but I will add to it. Yams are tecnically the tropical tuber. But when I was growing up there were two types of sweet potato. Yellow fleshed and orange. We called the yellow sweet potato and the orange yam. The yams were sweeter but less flavorfull. I prefer the yellow myself but have not seen them for at least ten years. It's a shame too, the tasted so much better. Even most of the seed catalogs have dropped them.
I have eaten the true yam and they are very similar to the orange sweet potato, that's why they are called yams.
Edit. Forgot to mention, I had yams in Hawaii and they called them Hawiin sweet potato! Even though they were actually yams. Strange.

Answer 3

Sweet potato tastes 10 times better than a yam.

I can only find sweet potatoes just before holidays in certain grocery stores .

Most stores have the yams all the time but they mark them as sweet potatoes and they are clearly not if you know what to look for.

canned sweet potatoes are yams too

when I cook sweet potatoes I boil them first, cut them up in chunks after cooling, layer them in a large pan with pieces of butter chunked up over all the potatoes. Then spread some brown sugar over the top..cook in oven for abut 20 min at 350

They are so good.. if you try them with yams they will never match up to the taste at all.

Answer 4

They are different but similiar. However, there is a variety of American sweet potato called yam, which is why companys can sell canned sweet potatos labelled as 'yams'.

Answer 5

True yams are very large tropical tubers, up to 2.5 meters in length and up to 75 kg(150 lb). The orange or yellow roots we are familiar with are properly called sweet potatoes. They are two different species of plant.

Answer 6

They are the same thing it is just different parts of the USA,call these by a different name,either they call it a sweet potato or a yam depending on what part of the USA that they grew up in. I love sweet potatoes,yummy! ;-)

Answer 7

Yams develop into "sweet Potatoes" once you upload the Brandy, Brown Sugar and marshmallows....perfect? i love those in the course of the holidays or on Sundays. otherwise, i love regulare potatoes.

Answer 8

There is a difference but both are a sweet root vegetable A yam is smaller pink and knobbly

Answer 9

They can be prepared so that they taste somewhat similar, but the are VERY different beasts!


Here's more than you ever wanted to know about the differences between the sweet potato and the yam:

http://www.sallys-place.com/food/columns/ferray_fiszer/yams.htm

Answer 10

sweet potatoes have pale skin. yams are orange and are sweeter tasting