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The Kitchen Table

Sweet potatoes? Where??

14 years ago

I just read a thread in which posters talked about baking sweet potatoes. I live in the metro DC area and cannot find sweet potatoes - haven't seen the real deal in two years. All they sell around here (Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, Wegman's, Bloom & even Whole Foods) are big yams & they are awful. I wrote letters last winter to all these supermarkets complaining about the lack of real sweet potatoes. They all denied not having them. They said the name "yam" and "sweet potato" are interchangeable. I don't think so! I tried to make a sweet potato casserole last week using these yams and it was awful. The texture is dry, sticky, stringy. I bought one of those individually wrapped "sweet potatoes" at Giant a year ago and nuked it. It tasted almost like the sweet potatoes I remember. But it was expen$ive. What the heck is going on here? We used to be able to buy sweet potatoes at any supermarket. And, aren't yams different genetically from sweet potatoes? Thanks :>)

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Comments (8)

sheilajoyce_gw
14 years ago
Well, I prefer the sweet potatoes with copper skin. I may be mixing up the terms, but I understand that yams are really something else than what we see in stores and are so stringy and tough that they don't sell them here. After the holiday, it seems like the sweet potato supply dwindles to nothing.
glenda_al
14 years ago
For two years straight, I mentioned I buy mine from Fresh Market. These are the best I have ever had, but the season must be ending, as they were slim pickins yesterday.

I bake mine, wrapped in foil, and kinda steam it, with the skin damp.

I do know the one I have been having is organically grown. Was gonna call FM but they are already closed.

My thinking, on doing some search, this one is a yam, cause the skin is so very dark and the flesh a bright orange. And sooooo fabulously sweet.
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cathyid
14 years ago
I have been told for years,there are no yams in the US. The different colors cause confusion,with the darker color called yams and the yellower called sweet potatoes, but both colors are sweet potatoe's. We have no problem getting either color all year long where we live.
arkansas girl
14 years ago
Yams and Sweet Potatoes are not the same thing but for some reason they are calling SP by the name Yam which is not correct. Cathyid is correct, I have never seen any actual YAM here. You can google the information, though a yam does look kind of like a sweet potato, there is a noticable difference. Sweet Potatoes taste different at different times of the year...whether they are in season or not and I don't know off hand what time of year is the best time to get the fresh crop, you can google that too.
sue_va
14 years ago
I have heard an explanation of the difference between yams and sweet potatoes, given by a well known expert, but I don't remember it well enough to try to explain it. I do know that they are definitely different.

Lately I have been getting sweet potatoes at Sharp Shopper that are super good. They come in a 3 pound mesh bag for $1.79. They are rather small, but very tasty. The tag on the bag says Product of the USA.

I wash the potatoes and prick them 2-3 times and bake them, not wrapped. I do two at a time, have one with my dinner and keep the other in the fridge for another meal,

Don't know how much longer they will have them, but I hope to get at least one more bag before the season ends.

Sue
colleenoz
14 years ago
And here is the difference explained:

Here is a link that might be useful: The difference bewteen yams and sweet potatoes
Marilyn Sue
14 years ago
I see plenty of sweet potatoes in the stores around here. I haven't bought any because I have two big boxes of them in my garage that we grew. To fix my sweet potatoes for casseroles and such if you need mashed ones, wash them well, put them in a big kettle and cover with cold water. When they come to a boil, boil around 15 minutes. If you have super big sweet potatoes, cut in smaller pieces. After they are cooked, put in cold water, making sure they are covered and the peelings will come right off. I then cut in smaller pieces and put through my food processor, no strings and nice and smooth sweet potatoes. We have been growing sweet potatoes for many years. I have a sweet potato vine growing in my kitchen. I started it this past fall. Rather pretty.

Sue in Indiana
susanjf_gw
14 years ago
heck i've been having trouble finding white bakers...they all seem to have this wrinkled skin, like they're "old"...

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