Knobbly and brown, with little, wispy, hair-like roots capturing off at random, yams aren’t the stateliest of meals. However in case you get previous their barely odd look, you might very nicely fall in love. That’s, in case you even cross paths with a actual yam. Chances are high, until you’re doing most of your grocery purchasing at African, Caribbean, or Asian markets, or grew up consuming and cooking these tubers, what you think about once I say “yam” is definitely simply an orange candy potato.

As I dug into just a bit bit in my discipline information to candy potatoes—method too many puns right here, I do know—the apply of calling candy potatoes yams began within the early Twentieth-century, when Southern farmers launched softer-fleshed orange candy potatoes to the American market. Farmers known as orange tubers yams to distinguish them from the white-fleshed candy potatoes individuals had been already accustomed to. The identify caught, and all these years later a superb portion of us nonetheless couldn’t level out an actual yam in a lineup. And that’s a disgrace, as a result of their taste and texture are utterly distinctive, and so they take nicely to all kinds of cooking strategies and seasonings. A real yam is far starchier than a candy potato, with a milder sweetness that turns into solely barely extra pronounced when the foundation is cooked.

The Historical past of the Candy Potato-Yam Confusion

Calling candy potatoes yams in America wasn’t only a money-making ploy. For the primary enslaved West Africans forcibly delivered to America, candy potatoes provided as near a style of residence as they had been going to get. Although sweeter and extra watery when cooked, these orange candy potatoes resembled the yams of Africa each in texture and look. “Slavers transporting captives from [West Africa] on the Center Passage provisioned themselves with yams enough for the voyages,” wrote culinary historian Jessica B. Harris in an op-ed on the cultural significance of the yam. “However as soon as ashore in additional temperate America, the slaves discovered that the African tuber was unavailable, and thus substituted it with the candy potato—resulting in centuries of botanical and gastronomic confusion.”

Actually, yams aren’t remotely just like candy potatoes. They belong to the Dioscoreaceae household of flowering crops, and develop in temperate and tropical climates, together with in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. A yam is the extraordinarily starchy tuber on the base of winding, bright-green herbaceous vines. Whereas candy potatoes typically don’t develop for much longer or thicker than a child’s forearm, yams can develop to be greater than six toes lengthy, and on uncommon events weigh in at over 150 kilos. That’s a really, very large tuber, and evidently, not the type of produce you’ll discover squeezed right into a grocery bin. There are greater than 800 forms of yams, and a majority of these are cultivated in Africa, with Nigerian farmers producing greater than half of the world’s provide.

A number of the commonest yam varieties you’ll come throughout embrace the favored white and yellow yams native to Africa, which resemble massive potatoes in form. In Asian markets you’ll discover Chinese language and Japanese yams, which have lighter-brown pores and skin, and are cylindrical. As a result of yams are grown and eaten in numerous elements of the world, strategies for cooking fluctuate enormously from one kitchen to the following.

Tips on how to Purchase and Cook dinner Yams

Yams are very resilient, and so they journey nicely. Which means, for probably the most half, you don’t have to fret about by accident selecting up a yam on the retailer that’s already spoiled—in contrast to the cursed-but-seemingly-fine avocado that’s all the time rotten within the center, irrespective of how stunning its exterior is. If a yam’s pores and skin is unbroken, and the foundation doesn’t have any mushy or mushy spots, contemplate it good to go.

In Jamaica, you’ll discover yams slowly roasting, pores and skin nonetheless on, over an open hearth. After they’re carried out, the inside might be simply pierced with a knife, however the pores and skin isn’t burnt—a powerful feat. The meaty flesh of the yam, barely smoky from the hearth, is served alongside flavorful chunks of jerk pork, hen, and different meats.

In Nigeria, the place so most of the world’s yams are grown and the tuber is central to on a regular basis life, they’re cooked into porridges, and cubed and stewed slowly with tomatoes, peanuts, greens, and spices. They’re additionally boiled then pounded right into a model of fufu, one in all West Africa’s most iconic dishes. The doughy, starchy combination is ideal for absorbing sauce, and is eaten alongside kind of every little thing.

The yams eaten within the Caribbean and all through Africa are bigger and extra bulbous than Chinese language yams, that are also referred to as nagaimo in Japan. In China, the yams are sliced into rounds and boiled in soup till tender, stir-fried with recent greens, blended into savory steamed truffles, and extra. You could find wild Chinese language yams pre-sliced and sun-dried in Chinese language grocery shops. The dried yams, pictured above, are often known as huai shan, and cooks reconstitute them in wealthy broths, simmering together with hen, pork, goji berries, and dried jujubes.

Chinese language and Chinese language-American cooks like Lisa Lin, a meals blogger and knowledgeable on Chinese language cooking, additionally make the most of a yam known as yamaimo or East Asian mountain yam. This selection has a sticky, barely slippery texture, and is usually sliced finely and eaten uncooked. “One solution to put together the yams is to boil them in a soup,” says Lin. “My mother (the kitchen matriarch) says that one of the best ones for boiling are smaller ones or those that look very twisted and crooked—normally present in farmers’ markets. They do not break down and switch to mush once they’re boiled.”

In Japan, amongst different functions, the starchy nagaimo and yamaimo yams are grated into the batter of okonomiyaki—chewy, savory pancakes showered in toppings and a mix of a candy and savory sauce and mayonnaise. The starchiness of the grated yams helps bind the pancake batter collectively, with out including an excessive amount of moisture.

I’ve solely touched on the very tip of the yam-shaped iceberg. There are a whole bunch of sorts of yams on the market, utilized in extra culturally various preparations than I may rely. The knobbly root takes nicely to frying, braising, sautéing, boiling, roasting, and extra. You simply need to determine the place to begin.

October 2019