Yams VS Sweet Potatoes

[jtsholtod.]

On behalf of my father, who is from Guyana, thank you! He used to get very annoyed when he saw sweet potatoes labeled as yams.

[Es_Elle]

In the South, we call the cooked dish Candied Yams for some reason! 🤔

[rosemarymcbride]

Sweet potatoes often get called yams in the United States because they were similar enough looking and in culinary application to the yams familiar to the West Africans that were kidnapped into American chattel slavery. The AAVEs that developed from African/English pidgins have had a substantial effect on the dominant english vernaculars both in the past as well as today and hence many people refer to sweet potatoes as yams.

[______IV]

I live in Los Angeles which isn’t exactly tropical, but luckily we have amazing Korean markets that stock actual yams and even taro.

[beegee]

Yep, yam is a west African staple and it’s definitely different from sweet potatoes. We prepare yams in different ways and I absolutely love it!

[vanessawallace]

What about the purple sweet potatoes and the Japanese white sweet potatoes varieties?

[georgecoleman]

I was taught yams are the brown skinned with orange flesh. Sweet Potatoes are the reddish purple skinned with white flesh. So now I’m really confused.

[StevinSto]

From what I understood....When the enslaved ppls from Africa were forced to farm sweet potatoes which are native to the America's the only comparison they had to make them to were the native yams to their ho e countries and the word yam comes from a misheard African word for the plant.

[leighmacbane]

THANK FUKIN CHRIST!!! FINALLY! I used to work in the produce department for four different grocery stores over a period of time over twenty years ago and whenever I would tell people this they wouldn’t believe me! They would look at me like I’M the IDIOT!

[kimmisoon]

My mom used to feed me raw yams. Without cooking and I loved it! What a great cook! 😁😁😁

[clairressagoad]

When I was younger we used to get the yams with the white flesh…I remember them…but have not seen them in decades…

[socketman]

Now I don't know if I've ever had yams

[global]

In London we have both and we’re not an African country, just multicultural.

[kittenbrave]

My southern farming family called a pale orange colored inside, bigger, brown skinned yam...not white inside. Smaller red skinned bright orange inside were called sweet potatoes...Depends on your region and generations away from ancestors...

[rustyshackleford]

It's also important to mention that _colloquially_, many people call sweet potatoes yams in the US, particularly in the South and in black communities. True yams come from Africa, so it makes sense for African slaves to call sweet potatoes yams, since that's their closest point of comparison. And then the name stuck around as a colloquially term for sweet potatoes.

[jamesharrison]

A little education is missing. What plant family are sweet potatoes from and the same for yams. And you're correct, most likely 90% of Americans have never had yams. They look a little like the tubers Hawaiian's make Poi from

[NolaDeb]

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
4 sweet potatoes, peeled quartered · or 29 oz
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

• TOPPING:
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans


1 – Boil and mash potatoes. Mix in rest of ingredients and pour into a buttered 9" x 13" dish.

2 – Heat topping mixture in small saucepan until it thickens.

3 - Pour over the top of sweet potatoes.

4 – Bake 350° for 25 minutes.

ENJOY! ❤️🏆

[banzaitnt]

You realize there are innumerable variety of sweet potato

[mspurfickt]

Well damn..continued learning. Maybe that's why people "candy yams" they aren't as sweet. Sweet potatos don't need that much added sugar..interesting

[Liftingandcats]

This may be true, but most cans of yam at the store, are full of sweet potatoes