Do you ever end up loitering within the produce aisle, internally debating the deserves of yams versus candy potatoes? At many grocery shops, they typically look an identical, however I’ve discovered that “yams” may be as little as 79 cents per pound, whereas “candy potatoes” value $2.49 per pound. So, what’s the distinction between a candy potato and a yam? At most markets: completely nothing. It’s all a facade! “A lot of the so-called yams you see in American grocery shops are literally orange-fleshed candy potatoes,” explains Mary-Frances Heck, a former BA staffer and the writer of Sweet Potatoes. The explanation for the title mix-up, she explains, is as a result of Louisiana candy potato growers within the Thirties marketed a brand new breed of orange-fleshed candy potatoes as “yams” to differentiate their crop from different states’ produce—and it caught.
The phrase yam is derived from nyam, nyami, or nyambi, verbs of varied African dialects that means both “to style” or “to eat.” The prevailing theory is that enslaved Africans utilized these phrases over time to the candy potatoes obtainable within the Americas, which took the place in their diet of the staple root vegetable grown in a lot of West Africa.
So, what are yams?
True yams are a part of a wholly totally different genus (Dioscorea; candy potatoes belong to Ipomoea within the morning glory household) and are extra akin to yuca in texture and taste. Yams are generally utilized in Caribbean and West African cooking and may develop as lengthy and thick as an grownup arm. They’ve bumpy, robust gray-brown pores and skin (that appears virtually just like the bark of a tree and have to be peeled away with a knife because it’s far too robust for a vegetable peeler). Most varieties aren’t candy. The most typical yams have starchy white flesh (although some reddish, yellow, and purple cultivars exist, resembling ube, a.ok.a. the purple yams widespread in Filipino cooking) and may be extra rightly in comparison with the feel and taste of white russet potatoes, however with extra fiber and sophisticated carbs. Impartial flavored yams are sometimes boiled or steamed to serve alongside hearty braised meats; the cooked flesh could also be pounded into fufu or swallow, a starchy paste eaten in lots of cuisines of the African diaspora.
To complicate issues additional, there are a handful of candy potato varieties in a variety of colours, together with orange, white, and purple. We had Heck break down the variations for us.
Types of candy potatoes:
Orange Candy Potatoes
That is the most typical sort of candy potato present in the USA. These are those you roast for meal prep, purée for Thanksgiving sweet potato pie or marshmallow-topped candy potato casserole, and (sure) cube into candied yams. In addition they make wonderful fries and chips and make a wonderful straightforward lunch or aspect dish when simply steamed. They’re versatile, broadly obtainable, and the varietals throughout the orange-fleshed potatoes are all “just about interchangeable,” says Heck. She notes there will probably be “delicate variations in taste, sweetness, and moisture” between Beauregard (brown pores and skin, extra deeply candy, grown in Louisiana), Garnet (crimson pores and skin, extra like pumpkin taste), and Jewel (coppery-orange pores and skin, mildly candy and earthy, California-grown).