Yams or Sweet Potatos?

[Hula1974]

I'm confused. Are these the same thing?
I want to make whole baked ones for easter and not sure which to buy.

Thoughts?

[fuzzy]

This might help: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-23-a.html

I'll buy either when I'm in need of sweet potatoes.

[Rose]

I use yams.

[Bloomwood]

I think you want sweet potatoes - the red fleshy ones. I can never tell them apart and don't trust the store to label them correctly so I always pick a little of the flesh to tell them apart.

[Amuse Bouche]

Here's a good page with some info and pictures:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Sweetpotatoes.html
What it says:
sweet potato Notes: In American supermarkets, sweet potatoes are displayed next to something called "yams," which are moister than sweet potatoes and have darker skins. But according to the rest of the world (and botanists), we have it all wrong. To them, our "yams" are just a variety of sweet potatoes. They use the word yam to describe a completely different vegetable, something we call a tropical yam.
yam = moist-fleshed sweet potato Notes: Americans use the word "yam" to refer to a sweet, moist, orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato. To everyone else in the world, a yam is what Americans call a tropical yam, a firm tuber with white flesh. Varieties of American "yams" (sweet potatoes) include the garnet yam (pictured at left) and the jewel yam.


Most things I've seen refer to sweet potatoes and yams interchangeably, and they're referring to what that page calls "American yams." They have an orange flesh and a purply/reddish brown thin skin. When you get sweet potato fries, or canned candied sweet potatoes or candied yams, that's what they're referring to.

[Rose]

garnet yam (pictured at left)

This is what I buy. I am in California and I usually see this and maybe one other type of yam at my store. Yumm. They are so good.

[maplekitty]

I think you want sweet potatoes - the red fleshy ones. I can never tell them apart and don't trust the store to label them correctly so I always pick a little of the flesh to tell them apart.

Yams have a orangy brown outside and orange inside. Sweet potatoes have a lighter brown outisde and kinda white to yellow inside.

[Bloomwood]

Yams have a orangy brown outside and orange inside. Sweet potatoes have a lighter brown outisde and kinda white to yellow inside.

See that just confuses me. which one do you bake and eat like a baked potato - the ones that are orange inside. That is what is used in sweet potato pie and sweet potato fries. But, according to your description it would be a yam. maybe it is regional? I think that here in the US, Yams are called sweet potatoes and vice versa.

[Jenean]

I use whatever's available in my grocery store. I haven't found a real difference in taste whether I'm just baking them, mashing them, or using them in a recipe.

[maplekitty]

They have a slightly different taste. I usually buy yams rather than sweet potatoes, but thats just my preference.

I think sweet potatoes are a litte more "bitter" tasting, and yams are quite sweet.
Sweet potatoes are more starchy, but both can be used for the same things. (ie. steaming, baking, mashing, fries etc)

Just try buying one small one of each. Cut them in half and steam them and taste the difference, you might like one over the other, or you might think they taste the same.

I find that around holidays they bring out the *huge* ones! Those are harder to cook and take longer. They should be about 6-10 inches long, and only big enough to have a half a grip around them.

[karen]

Sweet potatoes are more starchy and is more like a potato. I prefer yams over sweet potatoes because yams are more moist and it's sweeter.

If you are making whole baked ones then either will work.

[lawyerlee]

We always buy yams, but call them sweet potatoes. My DH and I both grew up with that, and we like that flavor best.

[Katy]

Okay, I always thought I knew the difference, but just the other day I picked up a bag of cubed YAMS at Trader Joes to mash for my FIL. But when I microwaved them like they said and then tried to mash them, they were just TOO stringy and tough. Turns out they weren't sweet at all and the consistence was just all off (then again, we also didn't have any brown sugar, so that could have been a contributing factor).

[Soon 2B Mrs.M]

Yams and sweet potatoes come from different families and have different flavors and uses. I recently had this same question, and I looked it up in a cooking book I have, and it said that although yams and sweet potatoes are very different from each other, if you see a sign that says "yams" at the grocery store chances are it is a sweet potato, as the term yams is often used as a misnomer in America.

Yams are not as sugary and sweet and cook more like a potato. They are a savory food.