I'm not gonna worry about this...I buy the off white ones that are in the produce section when I'm buying a sweet potato. I seldom buy the ones labeled yams. I do buy the convenient pre cut, pre washed pkgs that are orange and called sweet potatoes. I go by sight and taste and don't care what it's called.
The last sweet potatoes I bought, we planted. Outside in the front we had a beautiful potato plant and those two sweet potato plants. I enjoyed watching them, I often sit out on the patio and read while I use the peddler. I thought they were a good touch among the wild flowers.
http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/whats-the-difference-between-sweet-potatoes-and-yams-article I'm sure you are not mistaken about what you buy but the stores are mistaken about what they are selling. Read the article above.
Epicurious is full of baloney. You are wrong. THEY are full of .... In this court, Wikipedia trumps Epicurious. Three different grocery chains vs Epicurious. I shop Safeway, Kroger, and Winco, around here, You can add Bashas and HEB in Texas. You loose. Bunk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato Okay, we'll go with Wikipedia if that's what you like. I never lose.
According to the government site, which I posted above, sweet potatoes are frequently misidentified as yams in the United States, even on the labels. Although the government requires that producers of sweet potatoes who call their product yams have to also mention that their product is actually a sweet potato, or at least include the words on the label. The site also says that true yams may be available for sale in the international section of grocery stores, so I wouldn't go so far as to say that no one here has ever tasted a true yam.
If you want to taste the sweetest, juiciest sweet potato you ever ate, try the Beauregard sweet potato. Their peel is more of a reddish color and the inside is darker reddish orange. Many of our NC farmers are only planting those now.
I've learned something by reading through these comments. I copied Joe's comments about roasted sweet potatos and I 'm going to try them. Also going to look for the "can't cook" cook books. And I didn't know about the one's Shirley mentioned. Will check on those. Interesting. Thanks.
I think yams and sweet potatoes are the same. I buy the biggest red yam I can find, slow bake it til tender, scrape off the skin, throw the flesh into a bowl with butter, brown sugar, a little blackstrap molasses, and enough half'n'half to make a loose paste. In another bowl I do up a box of pound cake mix, stir in the yam paste, and bake. When the cake is cool I spread on a caramel glaze. Reminds me of my Aunt's candied yams.
They are not the same, not even related. Read the posts above and learn. Welcome to the forum. A little disagreement makes a good start.
No you're right @Sheldon Scott they are not the same at all. I have always enjoyed ''sweet potatoes''...the red outer with the orange inner..and always was under the impression it was just another name for a Yam, until I was invited to dinner at the house of a Jamaica friend who told me Yams were on the menu, and I expressed delight, but when they were served at dinner, not only were they a completely different colour ( which I expected)..but they were a completely different taste to what I was used to , and to my Hosts surprise and dismay I couldn't eat them.. they just were so different in taste to the red sweet potato!