Search what is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato

White yam Dioscorea alata is what you'd be most likely to find at an American supermarket that does not specialize in diverse produce. It has many English common names and more in other languages , including Greater Asiatic yam, water yam, winged yam alata means winged ; it has been cultivated for so long that its roots have become obscured, but the white yam's place of origin is thought to be Southeast Asia.

Its skin is brown and rough, its shape is very variable, and its flesh is pale. Confusingly, purple yam the ube of the Philippines is the same species, but with vividly violet flesh. Increasingly and incorrectly , purple sweet potatoes are referred to as ube. The real deal is this true yam. African yam, Guinea yam, or Ghana yam is a botanical mouthful: Dioscorea cayenensis subsp.

It has a reputation for deliciousness and is the yam of choice when making West and Central African fufu, glutinously good balls destined for dipping into the luscious gravy of stews. Fufu is also made with cassava or green plantain.

These white-to-yellow fleshed yams are hefty and log-like, with rough, pale brown skins. Cushcush yam Dioscorea trifida , also sold Stateside as mapuey , is native to Central and South America and widely cultivated in the Caribbean. The tubers grow in clusters, and each is elongated—sometimes tapered at the ends, sometimes rounded—with vertically striated, rough brown skin.

The texture of cooked cushcush is lighter than other yams, which tend to turn very solid as they cool. Two exceptions to the cook-your-yams rule belong to two East Asian yams. The relatively thin-skinned Chinese and Japanese yams, Dioscorea polystachya and D.

Think you know the differences between yams and sweetpotatoes? Take our quiz and test your root knowledge! Sweetpotatoes are almost always sweeter than yams. They have versatile flavor easily altered by cooking methods. Starchier and more potato-like, usually not very sweet. Versatile; flavor easily altered by cooking methods. True yams are dry, starchy root vegetables, closer in flavor to yucca than sweet potatoes.

They're native Africa, where 95 percent of yams are grown. They have a bark-like skin and their flesh can be off-white, purple, or red. You're unlikely to find true yams at U. Sweet potatoes, native to the Americas, are another story. There is tremendous diversity in the sweet potato sector, and growers are constantly adding more heirloom varieties to the mix.

You can find sugary sweet potatoes with snow-white flesh, and purple-fleshed sweet potatoes that taste like nuts. Sold year-round, sweet potatoes have an extended shelf life due to a curing process after harvest which increases their storage capabilities over a year. You will find sweet potatoes pre-peeled and cooked and sold in cans or frozen. There are two main types of sweet potatoes , both of which are elongated yellow or orange tubers that taper to a point at each end. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin and pale yellow flesh.

It's not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety which is most often and incorrectly called a yam has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a sweet, vivid orange flesh and a moist texture. There also is the Purple Sweet Potato. The sweet potato is used in both savory and sweet dishes, most often baked, mashed or fried.

When it is pureed it can be used in soups as well as baked goods and desserts, including, of course, sweet potato pie. It has also become a staple on the Thanksgiving table, most often as sweet potato casserole with marshmallows.

The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine Dioscorea batatas and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. It's a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over varieties available worldwide, and slowly becoming more common in the United States.

The yam tuber has brown or black scaly skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety.