o.k......Yam vs. Sweet potato

17 years ago

I have read some technical things about how they are different, but can anyone tell me in plain english, are they interchangeable??

I made a really good "Sweet Potato" casserole last year, and I want to make it again. I can't remember what I used. (the recipe calls for sweet potatoes) Seems like it must have been yams, cause they were reddish. The Sweet Potatoes I saw in the store were yellowish. Most things I read said that here in California, we only have yams, but my store had both. I am so confused!! LOL!!

HELP!!! I want it to come out as good as last year.

Rita

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Comments (4)

jel48
17 years ago
I did some online searching, and I thought this was the best:

http://www.sallys-place.com/food/columns/ferray_fiszer/yams.htm

It says there:"For all practical purposes, it might be more intriguing to think of the yam and the sweet potato as twins separated at birth, growing up with different quirks and twitches but retaining the essential sweet nature that makes them virtually interchangeable from a culinary perspective. Furthermore, the yams generally available in this country are really a variety of sweet potato. (True yams do offer one element missing from sweet potatoes; they contain a compound from which the sex hormone estrogen was first manufactured.)"

The important part is the "virtually interchangeable from a culinary perspective".
jemdandy
17 years ago
According to Webster's Dictionary:

A yam is usually an orange colored sweet potato.

The same dictionary wasn't much help when looking at "sweet potato" other than to say it was tuberous plant related to the morning glory.
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farmerdilla, Thanks for your comments. However the tuber I have is neither the species/variety of yam nor the sweet potato that you describe. Dioscorea alata (at least some varieties) has intensely colored purple flesh like that I see. Dioscorea batatas does not. I believe, but I'm not 100% sure, that Dioscorea alata is the only one of the genus that has flesh of this color. Certainly it is by far the most common species of the color. It is also known as Ube. As far as availability, the market I found it in was not technically "Asian" but it is in a neighborhood that is more than 50% Asian, mostly Chinese. It has lots of fruits and vegetables that I'm not familiar with. And the name "Chines Yam" is often applied to D. alata, although not as frequently as D. batatas is. However D. batatas would not have purple flesh. If it were a sweet potato, from what I understand it's most likely Okinawan puple sweet potato (I don't know of any other purple varieties, and nothing I've looked into suggests that a different variety that is commonly sold has purple flesh). As far as size: yes yams CAN grow big. Is D. alata generally sold as tubers greater than 4 lbs? No. From "The South American Table" by Maria Baez Kijac: "The yam (Dioscorea alata), called name in South America, is native to Africa but now grows in many tropical regions of the world. Yams are usually the size of large potatoes, but some may weigh up to 100 pounds." Just to complicate things, I'm positive that the tuber has been abraded so that it looks paler in color--there are darker, scaly regions where it looks like the abrasion process didn't (and often couldn't) reach. Lightly colored regions only exist where it looks like regions of the skin have been scratched off. Imagine dragging you fingernails multiple times across the surface--the parallel markings would look like this. I have a regular yam right next to it--it has paler, slightly yellow skin that is smooth. It's not the Okinawan variety--it has white, slightly yellow flesh. So what it boils down to is whether the purple colored tuber is the purple colored yam (D. alata or Ube) or the purple colored sweet potato (Okinawan purple sweet potato). I've spent quite a while looking and haven't found the answer. And again, this is in precisely a neighborhood where you might expect to find real Dioscorea, not just mislabeled sweet potatoes.
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Jerri
17 years ago
what a coincidence, I was just researching this yesterday. I tried to post link and was told this site is considered spam or advertising, so I can't include it. It's from the University of Illinois, and I sure hope that isn't some kind of no-no here. (when the heck did THAT start?...can't post a university study???)

"...The confusion between yams and sweet potatoes may be traced back to the days when sweet potatoes were a staple in plantation diets. African slaves called the sweet potato "nyami," from a Fulani word meaning "to eat" or from the Twi word "anyinam," referring to the true yam, a root crop common to Africa and Asia. Over time, many markets began to advertise sweet potatoes as yams--and the name stuck.

"What we traditionally eat on our Thanksgiving tables is most likely the sweet potato," said Nelson. "The name yam and sweet potato used to be used interchangeably in stores, but in recent years the USDA has tried to regulate use of the name. Any use of the word ÂyamÂ to describe sweet potatoes must be accompanied by the name Âsweet potato.Â"

There are over 600 different species of true yam, and probably just as many uses for them. They grow underground from a vine and vaguely resemble sweet potatoes, but tend to be more cylindrical, and often have "toes" sprouting from them.

"Many of them grow to astounding sizes, up to seven feet long and weighing 150 pounds," she said. "Their flesh can be white to bright yellow, and the tuber is covered in a very tough skin that is difficult to remove.

"Many yams contain more sugar than sweet potatoes, but they must be prepared properly before they are safe to eat. Yams contain chemicals including oxalates that can have adverse health effects if eaten. Typically, yams go through cycles of boiling, pounding, and otherwise leeching out these harmful compounds before they are eaten."

Particularly in ethnic markets, yams are becoming much more commonly available in the United States. They grow much like a sweet potato, but need up to a year of frost-free weather before harvest. A sweet potato, by contrast, will take 100 to 150 days to harvest..."

j
sheilajoyce_gw
17 years ago
I like the red, copper colored skin ones. They are smoother, less fiberous, and moister.

We don't get real yams in this country. They are a totally different root vegetable. And women used to gorge on them to get enough of them for the estrogen to work as birth control.

o.k......Yam vs. Sweet potato

Comments (4)

jel48

jemdandy

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