Talk about truth in food labeling!  Seems like we’ve all been duped in the U.S.A. for a very long time by our food marketing folks. Everywhere you look in supermarkets, sweet potatoes are called yams, and “yams” are called yams even when they are sweet potatoes.

How in the heck can we tell what we’re buying when most of us have never seen a real yam next to a sweet potato, and wouldn’t know a yam even if we got slapped in the face with marshmallow cream?

So here goes my feeble attempt to clarify the difference between a real yam and a sweet potato:

Yams
- Tend to have rough scaly skin
- Brown or black skin that looks like tree bark
- Off-white, purple or red flesh
- Long & cylindrical shape
- Related to lilies and grasses
- Native to Africa and Asia; popular in Latin America & Caribbean
- Over 600 varieties
- Starchier and drier than sweet potatoes
- Naturally sweeter flesh than the U.S. sweet potato (although African grown yams are starchier and less sweet than real U.S. grown yams)
- First recorded reference to yam in North America was in 1676
- Grow easily in tropical climates like South America, Africa, and the Caribbean

Sweet Potatoes
- Ends taper to a point (or it can look like a potato)
- Low in calories; have no fat
- Native to North America
- Thin skin ranging from white to yellow, red, purple or brown
- Sweeter yellow, orange, or orange-red colored flesh
- Rich in beta-carotene
- Related to the Morning Glory family
- Labeled firm or soft:
- Firm varieties keep their shape when cooked
- Soft varieties are easily whipped or mashed after cooking

Further internet research tells us that the sweet potatoes originally grown in the U.S. were a firm variety, which held their shape when cooked.  Pretty soon, a softer variety was developed commercially, and there was a need to distinguish the “firm” kind from the “soft” kind. As the story goes, many people of African origin in the South remembered African yams, which looked remarkably similar to the U.S. sweet potato. They began calling the soft sweet potatoes “nyami,” the African word for the starchy, edible root used as a staple in African diets. The shortened term “yam” took on a life of its own, and became widely popular for the softer variety of sweet potato. (Product branding by default, I suppose.)

To sum it all up, unless you’re shopping in an international market (or happen to be eating in Africa), you are probably eating a sweet potato. Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label “yam” always be accompanied by the term “sweet potato.” (I’m going to check that out next time I buy a box of Red Garnet yams.)

Still confused?
Think of it this way. Yam Pie just doesn’t have the same ring as Sweet Potato Pie, a real American invention.

So as you do your holiday shopping, be aware that the “yams” you think you are buying are really sweet potatoes.

As for me, I’ll still call ‘em Yams. Closer to YUM, if you know what I mean.

Happy Cookbooking,

Matilda

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If you enjoyed this article, you might check out:
• How to Tell if Fruit is Fresh
• Old Fashioned German, er, Italian, er, Caribbean Thanksgiving Dinners
• Avoid Toxic Mashed Potatoes on the Thanksgiving Table

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