sweet or yam?

azlady7

ok this may sound like a dumb question....but i went to the grocery store (one i dont go to that much) and I was looking for sweet potatoes. I found ones with a tag that said sweet potatoes, but they looked different than the ones from walmart. Below the ones labeled sweet potatoes was ones labled yams (which are what i have been buying calling them sweet potatoes).

The ones labled sweet potatoes have a light beige skin and whitish meat inside. The ones labled yams have brown skin and orange meat inside. So which ones are sweet potatoes? Every other store I have bought them in and everyone i have ever known has called the brown/orange ones sweet potatoes but this store didnt. Now i am all confused lol

anyone know?

justbcos

You are right, sweet potatoes and yams - when viewed botanically - are very different things. But in the US (or at least in the south and west - not so sure about the NE???) what we call sweet potatoes are really yams. Nutritionally they are still an excellent choice - enjoy!

slainger

I think the darker orange meat are Yams-I think this because when you buy canned yams they are dark orange! I consider the light yellow meat to be sweet potatoes - which I eat frequently! So good baked! Don't need butter or sour cream like a potato does!

loreenl

The dark orange ones are actually Yams and the others are sweet potatoes!!!

traceybett

So glad you asked this~ I have always wondered what the difference was too.... i assumed they were both brown on the outside orange in the middle.. .. but idk.
Hope someone knows.

wolfchild59

They're both sweet potatoes. Yams aren't even related to sweet potatoes but it's just one of those things that a huge amount of the population try to make a distinction between the paler fleshed sweet potatoes and the darker fleshed ones by called one a yam and one a sweet potato, when they're both sweet potatoes. Sometimes you'll see them listed as "garnet yams" as well, still just a sweet potato though. lol

manymuses

They are all likely sweet potato varieties, but can look quite different. Yams (which are not even related to sweet potatoes) are more often found in Africa, South America and the Caribbean, though the ones you are seeing makred "yams" could be imported from there but that's a stretch. Still, stores often call sweet potatoes "yams" just to make some distinction between the varieties. Buy the ones you like and log them as sweet potatoes for the calorie content unless they are marked with a sticker that actually says yams and shows a likely country of origin.

wolfchild59

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm

azlady7

thanks so much everyone! Great info and now i know that they are both the same lol and yam is something i have never ate lol. I just love this site!