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“In the U.S., there is no difference between a sweet potato and a yam,” says Sue Johnson-Langdon, executive director of the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission. What Americans commonly refer to as a yam is simply a variety of sweet potato with a particularly moist, bright orange flesh, explains Johnson-Langdon.
It’s all the result of a marketing ploy on the part of Louisiana sweet potato growers in the 1930s who wanted to differentiate their variety of sweet potatoes from the drier, white-fleshed varieties that were being grown on the East Coast, says Tara Smith, a sweet potato extension specialist at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. The growers chose yam, the English word that derives from West African words meaning either true yams or “to eat.” (The USDA requires that the vegetables still be identified as sweet potatoes though, so the label will say both yams and sweet potatoes.)
True yams have rougher, scalier skin than sweet potatoes and are often pale-fleshed. They are generally starchier in texture, and are hard to come by in the United States (though Chowhounds have tried). True yams belong to the family Dioscoreaceae, whereas sweet potatoes are in the Convolvulaceae family. Sweet potatoes originate from Peru and Ecuador, while true yams are from West Africa and Asia.
Huh I always believed in was the preparation of a yam that turned into a sweet potato. Thank you. I will never be my girlfriend who peeled a cucumber to make zucchini bread. :) It happened. The bread was moist yet yucky and tasted green. If a color had a flavor.
a friend's mother is allergic to sweet potatoes but not yams BECAUSE they ARE different plants. sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory/nightshade family whereas the yam is related to lillies.
Although yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.
Yams
Yams are closely related to...+READ
Although yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.
Yams
Yams are closely related to lilies and grasses. Native to Africa and Asia, yams vary in size from that of a small potato to a record 130 pounds (as of 1999). There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa. Compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier.
Sweet Potatoes
The many varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family, Convolvulacea. The skin color can range from white to yellow, red, purple or brown. The flesh also ranges in color from white to yellow, orange, or orange-red. Sweet potato varieties are classified as either ‘firm’ or ‘soft’. When cooked, those in the ‘firm’ category remain firm, while ‘soft’ varieties become soft and moist. It is the ‘soft’ varieties that are often labeled as yams in the United States.
Why the confusion?
In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate between the two. African slaves had already been calling the ‘soft’ sweet potatoes ‘yams’ because they resembled the yams in Africa. Thus, ‘soft’ sweet potatoes were referred to as ‘yams’ to distinguish them from the ‘firm’ varieties.
Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term ‘yam’ to be accompanied by the term ‘sweet potato.’ Unless you specifically search for yams, which are usually found in an international market, you are probably eating sweet potatoes!-COLLAPSE
Chinese yam, available at most real Oriental markets, is a prized Chinese longevity herb. Definitely worth including in your regular diet~
In the US, they're trying to make it sound the same but it is not. They do not belong to the same family of plants. In the Philippines they have a purple yam which has a distinct taste used usually for dessert.
I always thought the long tuber size sweet patato was a yam and the round ones sweet patatoes. they do taste the same so it makes sense that they are both sweet patatoes.
Just to add more confusion, here in New Zealand what we call yams are a neither a sweet potato or a true yam, but a small, thumb-sized tuber that originated in the Andes:
Yams are in every market serving our Latino community. They do not look or taste like a sweet potato to me. Sweet potatoes look like regular baking potatoes but with an orangish color on the outside and a bright orange flesh. The flesh is sweet. Yams are much larger tubes of pale flesh. The taste is mild, more like a regular potato.
WOW! So I guess I've never eaten a yam then... and this whole time, I thought Pluto was a planet too.
Where in NYC can you get the purple flesh variety?
In NYC one can get white, orange and purple-fleshed sweet potatoes.
I don't think I've ever seen a non-"yam" sweet potato; hereabouts, they're all of the orange variety.
I have seen yams all over London....many Caribbean markets have them. They are usually much larger than potatoes or sweet potatoes (maybe 2-3 times the size of an average potato)
Yams (true yams) are not of the potato family. They are both tubers, but thats about the extent of it.
pretty much everyone call the orange flesh sweet potato a yam here. a few grocers sell a hybrid white potato with sweet flesh and call that a "sweet potato" then charge double the price per pound.
I'm surprised Webber says "while true yams are from West Africa and Asia" since I was under the impression that ALL potatoes the World over actually originated from South & Central America.
does any one knows where to get them in LONDON?
You can get yams at many West Indian and Korean markets in New York city. You may hear some folks refer to it as being part of "provisions". This is what some West Indians eat for breakfast. It's very good steamed along with other provisions like plantains, coco, cabbage, fish and pork tails. You can also drizzle it with a bit of coconut oil. This is the way folks from Belize eat it and it is...+READ
You can get yams at many West Indian and Korean markets in New York city. You may hear some folks refer to it as being part of "provisions". This is what some West Indians eat for breakfast. It's very good steamed along with other provisions like plantains, coco, cabbage, fish and pork tails. You can also drizzle it with a bit of coconut oil. This is the way folks from Belize eat it and it is known as "boil up".-COLLAPSE