Is there a difference between yams and sweet potatores? What is it?

Answer 1

Jupiter YES!!

Sweet potatoes are much sweeter than yam. If you have any doubt, make a sweet potatoe pie and a yam pie. Trust me, you will taste the difference right away!

It seems that most people get confused as to what is a sweet potato and what is a yam! In fact, in the United States, most people use both terminologies to refer to a sweet potato, when neither of these two vegetables is related!

The sweet potato is found in tropical America and is a part of the Morning Glory family.

The yam is a tuber (a bulb) of a tropical vine found in Central & South America, as well as the West Indies, Africa and Asia. Varieties There are mainly two varieties of sweet potato. The pale sweet potato has a very thin yellow skin with a bright yellow flesh. This variety is neither sweet nor moist, but more the texture of a white baking potato. The darker skinned sweet potato has a thicker orange skin with a sweet moist flesh.

P.S. I never subsitute yams for sweet potatos... Never..ever..

Answer 2

I see you were able to communicate, which is the main thing. Technically, however, your cousin is right. Contrary to what even some grocery store produce guys think, yams and sweet potatoes are unrelated vegetables, though in both cases you're eating the root of a tropical vine. Sweet potatoes, Ipomoea batatas ("batata" is the original Taino name, whence potato), are an American plant of the morning glory family, whereas yams are of the genus Dioscorea. Yams, which are rarely seen in the U.S. and Canada but are a staple in tropical regions, can grow up to seven feet in length. The name is thought to derive from the West African word nyami, "to eat," which is heard in Jamaican patois expressions such as, Oonu wan fi nyam banana dem?, "Do you guys want to eat those bananas?" Some blame (or credit) yams for the high rate of twin births in certain parts of Africa. Or so I've heard tell--I confess I haven't been able to turn up any documentation. Still, good material to dazzle the 'tives with next time your cousins give you grief.

Answer 3

Yes there is a difference. They are not related - plant wise. Read this article on the net.
Sweet potatoes are moist and sweet. Yams are dry and starchy.

Answer 4

Yes, there is. They're not even related! You can't get real yams here in the US. Even though they use the word "yam" they are really all sweet potatoes.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html

Answer 5

Not really. They're probably different - but they taste similar. I use them interchangably.