Is it a sweet potato or is it a yam? Is sweet potato pie really made from yams? Are candied yams really made from sweet potatoes? Don’t mess up Thanksgiving by buying the wrong kind. You can’t rely on the labeling at the supermarket because it’s wrong more than it’s right.
This is what you want ↓↓↓
The only sweet potato you want to buy for Thanksgiving looks like this:
Whether the label says yams or sweet potatoes doesn’t matter. They’re the right ones. If you see something that looks different than this, run away. It’s not the right vegetable.
Sweet potato or Yam?
There are two common varieties in American supermarkets that look like potatoes but are sweeter and much more nutritious. The first has a dark, thin skin and a very orange interior. It has much more pointed ends than a regular potato. I’ve seen this labeled as both a yam and a sweet potato. This is the right one for making sweet potato pie and candied yams. This is probably what you want.
The other variety has a shape like a large russet potato but with skin colored like a yukon gold. The interior is more yellow than orange and much tougher to cut than a regular potato. I’ve seen this also labeled as both a yam and sweet potato. If you end up with this, I included a recipe below for that. Don’t try to use this for Thanksgiving or your family will disown you!
After research, I learned both of these are varieties of sweet potato. Yams are common to Africa and Asia and are a very different variety of vegetable. They’re usually 5x bigger and can be eaten raw.
Oops, I bought the wrong ones
So now that I accidentally ended up with the wrong kind of sweet potato, I came up with this sweet, smokey and slightly spicy variation on home fries. This was much more interesting than regular home fries and much more nutritious thanks to the sweet potato.
Sweet potato home fries
- 1 large sweet potato, unpeeled and cubed
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 slice of bacon, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Set a skillet to medium heat and start frying the bacon. Once it’s crisp, add the rest of the ingredients and fry over low to medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the outside is slightly brown and the sweet potato cubes are cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Close up 
Ready to eat
This is a recipe that benefits from caramelization. The more brown and crisp the potatoes are, the tastier this dish will be. A non-stick skillet would probably work best. You might also need more fat than the bacon provided. You could also easily make this vegetarian by substituting olive oil for the bacon.