# Sweet Potatoes versus Yams



## fliggie (Mar 25, 2007)

Could anyone please either point me to some pictures or describe for me the difference between a yam and a sweetpotato?  Are yams actually the sweeter, more orange of the two, with a thin skin--while sweet potatoes are a lighter color, almost yellow, and not quite as sweet as a yam?

I'm so confused....


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## Uncle Bob (Mar 25, 2007)

Yams are a tropical-vine tuber that is popular in South and Central America, parts of Asia and Africa and in the West Indies. Sweet potatoes and Yams or simular in many ways and therefore are often confused with one another. They are in fact two different species of plants. Here in the US
sweet potatoes are often called Yams and to add even more confusion, sweet potatoes that are canned are often labeled as "Yams". True yams are rarely marketed in the U.S. and are seldom grown.
Yams are somewhat sweeter than the sweet potato but are lower in some vitamins. There are several varieties of sweet potatoes grown. Beauregard, Porta Rican, Centennial, Jewel, and Vardaman are a few. You might find a true Yam in Latin American Markets...

Hope this helps


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## jpmcgrew (Mar 25, 2007)

Uncle Bob is right both names are the same in the US meaning to us just sweet potatoes and if I am right yams can get really really huge not like the sweet potatoes we get.I love sweet potatoes.


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## Andy M. (Mar 25, 2007)

Years ago some farmers developed an orange colored variety of sweet potatoes and decided to market them as yams to differentiate them from white sweet potatoes.


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## boufa06 (Mar 26, 2007)

In the Far East, sweet potatoes are either pale yellow or yellow and are sweet.  Yams are white or purple and are rather bland.  However, there is another variety which is a cross between a light yellow sweet potato and purple yam.  Except for a few savoury yam dishes, both tubers are used mainly in desserts.

Edited to read sweet potatoes are either pale yellow or orange...


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## redkitty (Mar 26, 2007)

mmmmm....I love sweet potatos!  And they are very good for you... WHFoods: Sweet potatoes  one of my favorite sites.  I use it for making up my own healthy recipes!


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## fliggie (Mar 26, 2007)

I love them both, but find the deeper orange color much more palatable (marketed as a "yam" at my market) than the pale yellow tuber, marketed as a "sweetpptato".  It's just very confusing, but this is quite helpful.  Thank you.


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## alinefang (Mar 26, 2007)

I find some picture for yams and sweetpotato.

Yams picture , sweetpotato picture

and you can visit my blog, there is a post about sweet potato muffin

*AlineFang's kitchen*


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## fliggie (Mar 26, 2007)

Yikes, those "yams" are actually scary looking! Thanks


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## Candocook (Mar 26, 2007)

No yams (the real kind) in the US unless imported as an oddity, which I think I saw at Whole Foods one time.


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## boufa06 (Mar 26, 2007)

Pictures of S.E. Asian tubers are as follows:


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## Easton (Mar 30, 2007)

Could anyone give me some instructions on the simplest way to prepare yams?  Peel and boil, would that be it?  Is it the same with potatoes?


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## Uncle Bob (Mar 30, 2007)

I have never prepared a "true" yam. It is my understanding that you would cook/prepare it as you would a Sweet Potato...So any recipe for sweet potatoes should also apply to a yam.

Do you have a true yam or do you have a sweet potato?

Hope this helps

Enjoy!


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## Constance (Mar 30, 2007)

Growing up, the only sweet potatoes I ever tasted were the sweet, syrupy ones that my mom and grandma made for Thanksgiving, or the ones with marshmallows, like some of the church ladies made. I didn't care for them at all.
But when I married that Cajun, I found out about "Lousiana Yams". Those deep orange sweet potatoes tasted like no others I'd ever tasted. All I did was prepare them like a regular baked potato, and eat them with butter. 

I realize now, that they are not true yams, but I can understand why the growers would want to differentiate them from other varieties. There's nothing like them! I loved them so much, that when I was expecting, I made myself sick by eating FOUR of them in one night, along with a couple of helpings of cooked cabbage. I won't do that again!


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## lulu (Mar 30, 2007)

I had no idea there was a difference, I am learning again...


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## fliggie (Mar 30, 2007)

Here's what I like to do--I cut them up into steakfry-size pieces, and place them on a glass pie plate.  I microwave them just for a few minutes, until they are a touch tender.  I then spread them out on a panini grill, put some butter and brown sugar on them, and put the panini press down, grilling them for about 10 minutes or so on medium heat.  They are very yummy this way! ...just an alternative to the traditional baked sweetpotato--which I also love.


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## Franca (Mar 30, 2007)

fliggie said:
			
		

> Here's what I like to do--I cut them up into steakfry-size pieces, and place them on a glass pie plate.  I microwave them just for a few minutes, until they are a touch tender.  I then spread them out on a panini grill, put some butter and brown sugar on them, and put the panini press down, grilling them for about 10 minutes or so on medium heat.  They are very yummy this way! ...just an alternative to the traditional baked sweetpotato--which I also love.


Ooh, thanks! I always bake ours, but you've given me something new to try. Those sound great!


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## auntdot (Mar 31, 2007)

To make it more confusing, the sweet potato is really not a tater at all.  The two are in different taxonomic 'families'.  

But it looks like a tater, is cooked like a tater, and to me it is a tater.

Love the orange variety, but that is generally all we can find.  The yellower version, I guess the more traditional sweet potato, I rarely see.  And I kinda miss them. 

I like those suckers.  

Sigh.


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## Franca (Mar 31, 2007)

auntdot said:
			
		

> Love the orange variety, but that is generally all we can find.  The yellower version, I guess the more traditional sweet potato, I rarely see.  And I kinda miss them.
> 
> I like those suckers.
> 
> Sigh.


We get both here. In fact, we get the yellow ones (my favorite), medium orange ones where the outside is really quite similar to the yellow ones, and very dark orange ones where the exterior can be almost purple. Heck, I don't know - maybe the almost purple ones are a fourth variety, LOL. But to me there is nothing like a baked yellow sweet potato with a little butter and salt. Mmmmmm, good.


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## Constance (Mar 31, 2007)

I like the orange ones best. They are so sweet that all they need is butter.


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## bethzaring (Apr 1, 2007)

here's the sweet potato I cooked yesterday. I placed it beside a one quart cup. The tuber weighed 4 pound 12 ounces, is a Beauregard (sp?).


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## Uncle Bob (Apr 1, 2007)

Miss Beth...

That's a nice tator. The Beauregard is a very popular variety grown in Louisiana and here in Mississippi. (Other areas as well I would think)
That one would make a Biggie Size of fries for sure


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## redkitty (Apr 1, 2007)

mmmmm, I made mashed sweet potato yesterday and it was sooo yummy!

Thats a big tator!!!!


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## Uncle Bob (Apr 1, 2007)

Normally/Usually when they get this big they are "stringy" 

If you ever get a chance to eat a white sweet potato give them a try. 
They are sometimes hard to find. They have a dryer flesh but sweet.


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## bethzaring (Apr 1, 2007)

Uncle Bob said:
			
		

> Normally/Usually when they get this big they are "stringy"
> 
> If you ever get a chance to eat a white sweet potato give them a try.
> They are sometimes hard to find. They have a dryer flesh but sweet.


 

hmmmmmm, I am new to sweet potato raising, only bringing in two crops so far.  And I have occassionally run into the stringy syndrome, so I know what you are talking about.  But very few of my tators have had it, and to tell the truth, I had not made a connection yet between size and stinginess.  The pictured tuber was cut into thirds, oiled and baked for two hours .  Then mashed.  I must have dissolved the stings in the baking process.  Usually when I have them, they are clustered on one end, and I can remove the strings easily.


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## Uncle Bob (Apr 1, 2007)

bethzaring said:
			
		

> hmmmmmm, I am new to sweet potato raising, only bringing in two crops so far. And I have occassionally run into the stringy syndrome, so I know what you are talking about. But very few of my tators have had it, and to tell the truth, I had not made a connection yet between size and stinginess. The pictured tuber was cut into thirds, oiled and baked for two hours . Then mashed. I must have dissolved the stings in the baking process. Usually when I have them, they are clustered on one end, and I can remove the strings easily.


 
A grower you are!! You must share your secret! I have never grown one that big...Baked and mashed is the way to go! I don't think you dissolved the strings...they probably were not there


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## evenstranger (Apr 1, 2007)

My grandfather used to love to just bake sweet potatoes in the skin, take them out, peel the top off and eat it like an ice cream cone. 

Not sure about elsewhere, but in the south, if you were naughty, Santa would bring you a lump of coal, a stocking full of switches and a cold sweet potato.


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## Uncle Bob (Apr 1, 2007)

evenstranger said:
			
		

> My grandfather used to love to just bake sweet potatoes in the skin, take them out, peel the top off and eat it like an ice cream cone.
> 
> Not sure about elsewhere, but in the south, if you were naughty, Santa would bring you a lump of coal, a stocking full of switches and a cold sweet potato.


 
If properly Kiln dried a baked tator can be as good as ice cream 
And do tell us what part of the South you are from!!


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## evenstranger (Apr 1, 2007)

Born and raised in North Carolina... and currently living a stone's throw away in Virginia. I can't wait to go home next weekend for Easter... baked ham, glazed carrots, sweet potato casserole, biscuits, deviled eggs, broccoli, and more... last count, my dad's cooking for about 17 people... which means I'll have some kitchen duty. But, I enjoy it, and it gets me out of dishes later!


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## evenstranger (Apr 1, 2007)

Eek! Just realized I was in the vegetarian channel... ignore what I said about ham! Sorry folks!


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