What is the difference between yams and sweet ...

Brent Rose

Yams and sweet potatoes are nutritional terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are actually very different. Learn the history, gastronomy and differences between yams and sweet potatoes.See Transcript

• All Videos>
• All Videos Food>
• Home Cooking Videos>

Transcript: What is the difference between yams and sweet potatoes?

Hi, I'm Brent Rose for About.com and today we're going to see the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. For starters, it's a sweet potato. Where is ... a sweet potato. This is a thread. Confused? Well, like most grocery stores in the United States, but the yams and sweet potatoes are not even related botany.

Sweet potatoes are common in the United States

Sweet potatoes are available in many varieties. The skin color can vary from red to purple, yellow, brown or white. The flesh ranges in color from white or yellow to dark orange. His skin is thin and edible. The varieties are "soft" is classified as "fixed" or. batatas "farms" remain relatively fixed in cooking, where the 'soft' sweet potatoes turn soft and moist. These are the sorts of "soft" often misdiagnosed as "yams" in the United States orange pulp.

Yams are starchy U.S. sweet potato

True yams are native to Africa and parts of Asia. You can be the size of a small potato or up to eight feet long and weigh more than 150 pounds! There are over 600 species of yam, 95% is grown in Africa. The skin of most varieties of yams is thick, rough and a little like bark, and raw meat is muddy and slippery. Once cooked, yams are generally much drier overall, strength and less sweet than sweet potatoes sweet potatoes called Americans. The confusion began in the United States when the "soft" varieties were first grown commercially and producers need to distinguish people from the hard varieties used.

The slaves that were brought from Africa, were called batatas "yams" because they are a real bore resemblance to the sweet potatoes, a staple in Africa, commonly called Nyami, or something similar. True yams are very hard to find in the United States compared to the sweet potatoes. You can usually find on the international markets and specialty shops. Yam application will almost always be, sweet potatoes, but maybe have better luck if you try to apply their Spanish name Nyami.

Prepare potato Yam similar

For most of the sweet potato recipes that you want to start peeling. You can use a sharp knife or peeler strong coupling. Be careful, because the meat is very slippery then. Cut wash the bad points, and sweet potatoes in cold water so that no sand or gravel rely on them. Then they can be cooked like a potato in foil, or they can be fried, grilled, smoked, fried or boiled. In order to make Fufu (Fufu Fufu), a staple in Central and West Africa, cut the cable in the same pieces, then cook for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Once a knife into pieces to go almost without resistance, be prepared and should be emptied. Traditionally, the Fufu by cooked pieces in a mortar and giant beat until the desired consistency, but a robot used to do the job. It can even simply crushing the pieces with a spoon against the wall of a vessel until the desired consistency is reached. Usually served with soup or other savory dish.

I hope this clears some of the confusion. Thank you for your attention, for more information visit our website at About com.Note. True yams can be stored up to six months without refrigeration! This is much longer than the shelf life of potatoes, which is about one month.

About the videos are on an "as is", subject to the use agreement.