What`S The Difference Between A Yam And A Sweet Potato

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The Difference Between Sweet Potatoes and Yams. Many times the names "sweet potato" and "yam" are used interchangeably in conversation, in cooking and even at the supermarket. Moro Rice.

But they are really two different vegetables. In fact, although they are both root vegetables, they belong to two different plant families- -the sweet potato is from the morning glory family while the yam is related to the lily.

Yams are sweeter than the sweet potato, grow much larger and are also nutritionally inferior. The fact that yams and sweet potatoes are mislabeled on cans and in recipes can cause a lot of confusion.

Here's how to tell them apart and cook them properly. Sweet Potatoes. Sweet potatoes belong to the genus Ipomoea.

They are thought to have originated in Central or South America and are popular in the American South and available across the globe. Sold year- round, sweet potatoes have an extended shelf life due to a curing process after harvest which increases their storage capabilities over a year. You will find sweet potatoes pre- peeled and cooked and sold in cans or frozen. There are two main types of sweet potatoes, both of which are elongated yellow or orange tubers that taper to a point at each end.

The paler- skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin and pale yellow flesh. It's not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker- skinned variety (which is most often and incorrectly called a yam) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a sweet, vivid orange flesh and a moist texture. Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey and Velvet. The sweet potato is used in both savory and sweet dishes, most often baked, mashed or fried. When it is pureed it can be used in soups as well as baked goods and desserts, including, of course, sweet potato pie.

It has also become a staple on the Thanksgiving table, most often as sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. Yams. The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. It's a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over 1. United States. The yam tuber has brown or black scaly skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off- white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa, where they originated.

In Spanish, they are referred to as batata, boniato and ñame. Generally sweeter than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length and top 1. A staple in African cuisine, yams are most often boiled, roasted or fried.

Their long shelf life of 6 months allows for them to be a dependable food source during times of poor farming- -the yam is a much more difficult crop to harvest than the sweet potato. Purple yams are found in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines and are often used in desserts. In parts of the United States where yams are not popular, most major supermarkets don't carry them- -to find yams you'd have to go to specialty markets selling Caribbean, Asian or African foods. The Root of the Confusion. From the African words njam, nyami or djambi, meaning "to eat," comes the English word "yam." African slaves in the Americas began calling the indigenous sweet potato "yam" because it reminded them of the food staple they knew in Africa. For this reason, throughout the American South, the term is commonly applied to sweet potatoes.

Interestingly, the confusion is not limited to the Americas. The famed "purple yam" of Okinawa is also a sweet potato and not a true yam.

In Malaysia and Singapore, "yam" refers to taro. And in New Zealand, the oca is called a yam.

What's the Difference Between Sweet Potatoes and Yams? I was born in Vardaman, Mississippi, the self proclaimed “Sweet Potato Capital of the World.” Since my current home state of North Carolina produces far more sweet potatoes—about as much as Mississippi and the other top- producing states of California and Louisiana combined—it seems that Vardaman should consider relinquishing this title. They maintain, however, that what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. In fact, one Vardaman farmer recently reported that visiting farmers from North Carolina took Mason jars of his soil back to North Carolina State University in an attempt to decipher the secret to the silky sweet taste and the smoother, tighter skin of Vardaman- grown sweet potatoes. If there is one question that everyone I meet seems to have, it is the difference between yams and sweet potatoes.

That confusion is two- fold and centuries old, beginning with the slave trade. Ships transporting enslaved Africans to America were provisioned with true yams (Dioscorea), a large hairy root of tropical origins. In America, where there were no yams, they were replaced with the New World sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas), which were paler in color and drier in texture than today’s popular varieties. Slaves took to calling them by the West African word “nyami,” which was Anglicized to “yam.”That confusion was further compounded in the 1. USDA allowed Louisiana to brand the moist, bright orange Puerto Rican variety of sweet potato as a yam, however incorrect that designation may be. By capitalizing on its colloquial name, Louisiana hoped to distinguish its sweet potato from the inferior varieties grown at the time in Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. Call them what you wish, just know that in the United States yams are actually a variety of sweet potato.

April Mc. Greger is the owner of Farmer’s Daughter, a North Carolina- based artisan food company. Frito Pie.