What do I do to substitute yams for sweet potatoes in a recipe?

[no_hypocrisy]

[Warpy]

1. First, make sure what you have is really a yam

and not just another variety of sweet potato: http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm

Once you've determined whether it's a real yam or a supermarket "yam," you can start looking for recipes.

[Denninmi]

2. True yams are a lot drier, a little starchier, and not as sweet as sweet potatoes.

I grow both true yams (Dioscorea batatas, Chinese Mountain Yam) and sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas). I find that the true yams after they're cooked are virtually indistinguishable from a regular white potato overall, just a little less starchy. They grow oodles of little baby tubers on the stems in late summer that are about the size of a marble to about an inch long. I gather those, boil whole, and use them to make potato salad.

[The empressof all]

3. In America for the most part they are interchangeable for recipes

So if you want to make a Sweet Potato Pie and only have yams just use the yams and you should have a good result.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Thank you all.

I love to cook and bake and just didn't want to disappoint my family.

Happy Thanksgiving in advance!

[pscot]

5. A picture may help

These are sweet potatos. There are various cultivars.




This is a yam.

[pengillian101]

6. Wow, that WAS helpful seeing pictures.

I never knew the the difference.