# What can I do with three pounds of yams? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390 "2006-02-27T23:38:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/21 "2006-02-28T01:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > What can I do with three pounds of yams? Achieve World Peace…if used _skillfully_, young Padawan. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/22 "2006-02-28T01:44:02Z")
Two words: [Spud. Gun.](http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=5) ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/23 "2006-02-28T06:43:28Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > Two words: > > [Spud. Gun.](http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=5) Kartofelkanone, to be precise ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/24 "2006-02-28T07:06:03Z")
> [@](#): > > What can I do with three pounds of yams? Make yam-ade. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/25 "2006-02-28T13:18:28Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > [\*\*NSFW \*\*hijack] > > Google \< **yams granny “karen finley”** \> if you want a :eek: > > [/\*\*NSFW \*\*hijack] > > Did I mention that the results will **NOT** –repeat \*\*\*_NOT_ \*\*\*–be safe for work? When I saw the title “What can I do with three pounds of yams?”, Karen Finley was the first thought in my head. Why, yes, I DO need professional help. However did you know? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/26 "2006-02-28T14:52:11Z")
In “Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook,” Alice (Remember Alice? This is a song about Alice)–anyway, Alice describes how she gave a party and only served sweet potatoes, but had a bunch of accompaniments–butter, sour cream, whipped cream, pecans, apple rings, pineapple and some other stuff. Use your imagination and go wild. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/27 "2006-02-28T15:17:23Z")
Am I the only one who keeps reading the thread title as “What can I do with three pounds of \*yarn[/]?” and gets excited about a knitting thread every time until I remember what it really says half a second later? No? Well, carry on, then… ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/28 "2006-02-28T16:11:30Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In “Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook,” Alice (Remember Alice? This is a song about Alice)–anyway, Alice describes how she gave a party and only served sweet potatoes, but had a bunch of accompaniments–butter, sour cream, whipped cream, pecans, apple rings, pineapple and some other stuff. Use your imagination and go wild. Sweet potatoes are not yams. Yams, as cowgirl has, are white with purpley skins. “Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew”. Or, there’s always Bammy, a Jamaican thing which more or less works out to a yam latke. Spice it up, though. ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/29 "2006-02-28T16:15:42Z")
[Here](http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/quick.aspx?q1=yams&lnkid=65) are a few to get you started. The yam brownies sound especially interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/30 "2006-02-28T16:34:53Z")
> [@Cecil Adams](#): > > [Link](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990604b.html). > > Contrary to what even some grocery store produce guys think, yams and sweet potatoes are unrelated vegetables, though in both cases you’re eating the root of a tropical vine. Sweet potatoes, _Ipomoea batatas_ (“batata” is the original Taino name, whence potato), are an American plant of the morning glory family, whereas yams are of the genus _Dioscorea_. Yams, which are rarely seen in the U.S. and Canada but are a staple in tropical regions, can grow up to seven feet in length. And from the Wiki link: > [@](#): > > In the United States, the sweeter varieties of the sweet potato (_Ipomoea batatas_) are often called “yams”. Sweet potato “yams” are widely available in U.S. food stores. True yams are only found in specialty markets such as those that serve Asian or Caribbean communities. And from the article’s internal sweet potato link: > [@](#): > > The moist-fleshed, orange cultivars of sweet potato are occasionally referred to as “yams”… The true yam, which is native to Africa and Asia, can grow up to 2 m (6 ft) in length (sometimes with knuckle-like ends) and has a scaly skin, a pinkish white center, and a thick, almost oily feel to the tongue. > … > > Starchy, white-fleshed types are sometimes called **batatas** or **boniatos** , from dialectal Spanish terms which in Spanish refer generically to all types of sweet potato… So it looks like what you buy in the supermarket – whether white or orange – is a ‘sweet potato’. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390/31 "2006-02-28T18:28:16Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > So it looks like what you buy in the supermarket – whether white or orange – is a ‘sweet potato’. Maybe at YOUR supermarket, but not in these parts. I know my yams from my sweet potatoes and they are different veggies entirely. (I figured it all out in Brazil, where yams are a staple and sweet potatoes (like the ones we eat so much up here) are unknown.) Yams are less sweet and more starchy and fibrous, and are extensively used in the kinds of regional cuisine that people cook in my neighbourhood (which I guess is full of “specialty markets such as those that serve Asian or Caribbean communities” - looks like Wikipedia may need some region-specific tweaking, as my Canadian neighbourhood is full of Asian or Caribbean communities; a “specialty market” would be one that did NOT sell yams!) There’s one store where I can get about eight different types of yam (some of which are pieces of larger ones which could easily have been 7 feet long, and some of which are several feet long on their own). They usually have brown skin (although mine are purple) which is often fibrous, like a coconut. Sometimes the skin is waxy. More things in heaven and earth, and so on. Thanks for the recipes, **melondeca**. I’ll try the Spicy African Yam Soup next. For those keeping score, the coconut/banana/yam soup was delish, but it does require the curry paste to spice it up (I used red curry but green would work just as well). Also I recommend using ripe bananas so they will disintegrate and make the flavour nice, rather than lurking as mushy soggy things. The yams provide sufficient mush and sog for me. And next time I will add a spoonful of peanut butter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-with-three-pounds-of-yams/346390.md?page=1)