2 hours ago, FauxPas said:
Do you get real yams in SF area? We used to see sweet potatoes wrongly labeled as yams, but I think now they are a little more careful/accurate about it. I think we used to get both at times, but now I mostly just see sweet potatoes. Which is fine with me, because I love the. m! But when I cook them after several stabs, the liquid from them tends to run all over and sometimes I just wrap them in foil, to keep things a bit tidier. Do yams behave the same way?
No, we do not. You are correct that technically all the things labeled yams are in fact an orange variety of sweet potato, to distinguish them from the less sweet white fleshed sweet potato. Real yams are indeed a different animal and rarely seen in markets in the US. If you want to make a sweet potato pie you learn to buy the orange fleshed sweet potato labeled as yams. The clue is they have a redder skin and the varieties are typically Garnet, Jewel or Beauregard. Around here in Northern CA the Beauregards don't show up often but they are really good. Maybe they are grown more in the south?
I just stab them and bake loose on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Yes they do seep a little but not enough to make a difference as far as I can tell.