tan-skinned sweet potato, red-skinned sweet potato, russet, red-skinned potato, Yukon Gold, and white-skinned potato

Is it a sweet potato or is it a yam? Often in our grocery stores, reddish-skinned sweet potatoes are labeled as yams.  In truth, it is extremely rare to find a true yam in a standard market, just about the only place you may be able to find them is in a Latin American market.  There is no need to worry though, if you have a favorite yam recipe, sweet potatoes will fit the bill, because in all honestly, that’s probably what you’ve been using all along.

A true yam is the tuber (or bulb) of a tropical vine and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Slowly becoming more common in US (Latin) markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yams are revered as religious objects and have ceremonial status, one reason may be because they can become amazingly huge. On the Pacific Island of Ponape, the size of yams is described as 2-man, 4-man, or 6-man, indicating the number of men need to lift the thing!  In fact, a 650-pound, 7-foot-long yam has been recorded.

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