Monday, December 01, 2014

French Fry Diary 631: Sweet Potatoes Vs. Yams


Last week I posted some really cool pics from my friend Robin Renee of her Homemade Vegan Sweet Potato Pies. A conversation via text later indicated that Robin didn't think they were technically sweet potatoes, but yams instead. This got me thinking about what the real difference between sweet potatoes and yams actually was… and therein I discovered quite the conspiracy.

It would seem that what we think of in America as yams are really just sweet potatoes, just another variety of them. We've been calling them the wrong name for years. It's just like those French taking credit for fries from the Belgians, we've been giving yummy sweet potatoes the name yams when they are not yams at all. You can read about what's really what in the world of yams and sweet potatoes here.

And while we're sort of on the subject of Robin Renee and the holidays, you might want to check out these two YouTube videos, "Hare Krishna Christmas" and "The Yule Song." Enjoy!

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1 comment:

  1. Victoria Marie Lees10:12 AM

    Now, Glenn, I always thought the orange ones were called Sweet potatoes. Now I've learned the golden/pale green flesh ones are the sweets and the orange ones are the yams. The difference I notice is that the orange ones are more moist than the drier pale green sweet potatoes. Thanks for sharing this info with your readers.

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