Yams Vs Sweet Potatoes – Louisiana You Should Know the Difference

In the next few days meal planners across Louisiana will be gathering the goods for their annual Thanksgiving Feasts. Chances are turkeys will be fried in Crowley. In Maurice, they might opt for a turkey roll. Meanwhile, down the bayou in Morgan City, those doing the cooking might opt for something seafood to slide inside their bird of choice on Thanksgiving.

And while there is often a spirited discussion about how the star of the Thanksgiving show, the turkey, will be prepared there isn't usually much of a discussion about the yams. Or should that be the sweet potatoes? Or wait a minute, is there actually any darn difference between the two?

The short answer when it comes to "Is there a difference between yams and sweet potatoes" is yes. There is a botanical difference as well as some other subtle differences that to the untrained eye or palate might be missed.

Sweet Potatoes belong to the Morning Glory family of plants while Yams are members of the Lily family, if we are speaking scientifically. Yams aren't as sweet as sweet potatoes and they usually contain more starch. Yams can grow up to seven feet long. They are very similar to yuca if you've experienced that.

One caveat about yams they can be toxic if you eat them while they are still raw. You won't have that as an issue with a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are generally much smaller. They usually range from five to seven ounces and their flesh is usually orange, purple, or red.

Both sweet potatoes and yams can be cooked in several different ways. For Thanksgiving a lot of people will roast them or bake them, then add some additional sweetener such as Steen's syrup, and then top the whole thing off with marshmallows. If you really want the dish to be "sweet" use sweet potatoes. If you're going to leave the sweetening to the syrup and marshmallows then yams might be your better option.

By the way, we can blame the confusion between yams and sweet potatoes on the horticulture department at LSU. Back in the 30s LSU scientist wanted to differentiate the orange Louisiana sweet potatoes from their white-flesh counterparts. They petitioned the government to allow those orange sweet potatoes to be sold as "yams".

Evidently, the marketing idea worked so when you purchase "yams" in a canned form or even at a farmer's market you might actually be buying sweet potatoes. Just make sure you know what you're buying before you commit to it before Thanksgiving. We can't have the "candied yams" or "sweet potato pie" be talked about in a negative way, now can we?