Yam what is it

Sometimes life puts you at a crossroads: Do you buy yams or sweet potatoes? So, what's the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? At most grocery stores, absolutely nothing. It's all a facade! The skin of a yam left looks kind of like tree bark, while a sweet potato right is more reddish-brown. Real yams are entirely different root vegetables that are more like yucca in texture and flavor.

They have bumpy, tough brown skin that looks almost tree trunk-like with starchy, not sweet flesh. Yams are more easily compared to the texture and flavor of white russet potatoes with more fiber and complex carbs and are best boiled and served alongside hearty braised meats.

The neutrally-flavored yams are often used in Caribbean or West African cooking, and are difficult to find in the U. When it comes to the yam, a bit of confusion. That sweet, orange-colored root vegetable that you love so dearly is actually a sweetpotato. Most people think that long, red-skinned sweetpotatoes are yams, but they really are just one of many varieties of sweetpotatoes.

So where did all of the confusion come from? A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene.

Depending on the variety, sweetpotato flesh can vary from white to orange and even purple. The orange-fleshed variety was introduced to the United States several decades ago. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa, where they originated.

Generally sweeter than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length and top pounds. A staple in African cuisine , yams are most often boiled, roasted or fried. Their long shelf life of 6 months allows them to be a dependable food source during times of poor farming—the yam is a much more difficult crop to harvest than the sweet potato.

Purple yams are found in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines and are often used in desserts. In parts of the United States where yams are not popular, most major supermarkets don't carry them—to find yams you'd have to go to specialty markets selling Caribbean , Asian or African foods. From the African words njam, nyami or djambi, meaning "to eat," comes the English word "yam.

For this reason, throughout the American South, the term is commonly applied to sweet potatoes. Interestingly, the confusion is not limited to the Americas.

The famed "purple yam" of Okinawa is also a sweet potato and not a true yam. In Malaysia and Singapore, "yam" refers to taro. And in New Zealand, the oca is called a yam. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.