I know there tends to be a lot of confusion regarding sweet potatoes vs yams and correct labeling so I really wanted to ask the experts here. These are all from the same bulk bag I got from Walmart and, according to the label (second picture), they’re sweet potatoes. They all seem to have orange inner flesh but the two longer ones really look like yams.. I know there are certain yam variations but garnet/jewel yams seem to bear a striking resemblance to what most people would consider a sweet potato. I also know that sweet potatoes and yams are fairly nutritionally different so I’ve really been wanting to know if I can/how to properly identify these things so I can fit them into my meal plan somewhat accurately 😅
Thank you in advance
by felini9000
9 Comments
If you’re in the US, you will almost always be buying a sweet potato. Yams are not typically sold in US grocery stores.
Garnet yams are a trade name for orange sweet potatoes. Virtually everything sold as “yam” in the US is in fact Sweet Potato – the confusion arises from enslaved Africans calling new-world sweet potatoes the same name as an old-world vegetable they were familiar with in their homelands, and the term stuck.
True yams have rough, elephant-like skin, a drier texture, and are mostly used in savory preparations. You are unlikely to encounter them outside of specialty markets in the US. 🙂
Garnet and Jewel don’t just resemble sweet potatoes, they are types of sweet potato. Both are in the genus ipomoea. True yams are in the genus dioscorea.
They’re sweet potatoes. Walmart doesn’t sell yams. Anything labeled “yam” at Walmart is actually a sweet potato.
And nearly all American recipes that call for “yams” actually expect you to use sweet potatoes, not true yams.
There is no confusion on correct labeling of sweet potatoes, only in common usage. Sweet potatoes must be labeled sweet potatoes. USDA regulation is perfectly clear on that. Orange-flesh sweet potatoes may be labeled yams (due to colloquial usage) but must also include sweet potatoes on the label. True yams may be yellow- but never orange- fleshed. True yams must never be labeled sweet potatoes.
What you have is sweet potato – very easy to propagate via ‘slips’
This is an image of yams – i grew up mainly eating the pink/red ones:
https://preview.redd.it/fn4tjpc8uh8g1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=3da2c4b76f1e042867d3f3cdfef6a37eedd32457
Yes, I live near where the company is from and yes it’s all sweet potatoes…. Lots of fields here are just sweet potatoes growing on sandy soil.
They yam what they yam and that’s all they yam.
No, that’s you.
They look like them? Cut them open. If white sweet potato, if yellow, yam