The Difference Between Sweet Potatoes and Yams

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What are yams? What are sweet potatoes? Are they the same thing? What on earth are we eating?

I first came across this conundrum in a Whole Foods Market in their produce section. Sitting side-by-side were two distinctly different potatoes, one white fleshed and one orange. The sign above them read โ€œYams and Sweet Potatoes.โ€ I picked up both potatoes and wondered which was which.

I did some research and learned that they were both sweet potatoes. Whatโ€™s going on here? Whereโ€™s the yam?

Text overlay - What's the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? over a picture collage of sweet potatoes and yams

What Color Is A Sweet Potato?

We all know sweet potatoes are orange, right? Well, not quite. Sweet potatoes can have a variety of different colors; ranging from white to orange and even to purple. You definitely have to try a purple sweet potato sometime if you havenโ€™t already.

Sweet Potato Texture

Sweet potatoes also have two different textures. One being firm (which has paler flesh) and the other being softer (which has an orange flesh). But essentially the thing that many of us grew up calling a yam is really a sweet potato. Wait, was my momโ€™s sweet yam pie a lie? Not really. Thereโ€™s more to this story.

Where Do Sweet Potatoes Come From?

The first sweet potato introduced into the U.S. was the firmer paler one. When the softer orange one was later introduced there was concern that it would cause confusion. And with that, a new name, yam, was adopted. It might have something to do with the fact that it looks a bit like a true yam. But it was never a true yam. In fact, sweet potatoes and yams are not even related.

So What Is A Yam?

Yams are grown in Africa and Asia and you donโ€™t usually find them in regular grocery stores here in the United States. They are starchy and drier than sweet potatoes and require different preparations than their orange counterparts. These tubers look less like potatoes and more like small logs from a tree. If you put a (sweet potato) yam next to a real yam, you wonโ€™t mistake the two.

In conclusion, a yam and a sweet potato are two totally different vegetables unless you are in the States, where yams and sweet potatoes have a little bit of an identity crisis with some sweet potatoes sometimes, but not always, being called yams. In truth, most Americans have never seen or eaten a true yam. But donโ€™t tell my mom that. I donโ€™t want her thinking I think sheโ€™s a liar; I need her to keep making me that pie!

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About Christine

Christine is the founder of TheCookful and also of her blog COOKtheSTORY. Her passion is explaining the WHY behind cooking โ€“ Why should you cook things a certain way; Will they turn out if you do it differently; What are the pros and cons of the method? Learn more about Christine, her cookbooks, and her podcast.

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5 Comments

  1. How about putting up a picture of the โ€œtrueโ€ yam??
    Or even a picture of the sweet potato, yam and โ€œtrueโ€ yam side by side? THAT would have clarified the
    situation better than a thousand words!!

  2. I just pealed 6 sweet potatoes. They all looked alike, about 6 โ€œ and 2โ€ around. Well actually 5! As I started pealing one the flesh was white! I thought at first that someone at the store had mixed a russet potato in the sweet potato bin. But the texture was different that a common potato. Hmm?

  3. Thank you for clarifying. Iโ€™m from California and I currently live in the Dominican Republic. I ran into this conundrum months ago. Not to mention, here we have another similar vegetable that is also sweet. The skin can vary in color from purple, to an orange-ish pink like color, with a hard, white flesh. We call that batata (Google translate says sweet potato, but thatโ€™s not correct so idk the English translation). I did a Google search and found and extensive list of different types of sweet potatoes, yams and other root like, potato-ey, vegetables of the same family or resemblance. Not gonna lie, it caused more confusion, but your post here clarified the difference between the African Yam and the sweet potato. I also grew up calling sweet potatoes yams. Thank you for putting this together.

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