Brix % of baked yams
Tis the season to consume Yams! I love em! Theyrrrrrrrrr great! (as Tony the tiger would say).
I don’t know at what age I started eating Yams but I do remember as a child I would often help my mother around the holidays serve a baked dish of orange-looking potatoes (sometimes with marshmallows on top). I never knew if I was eating a sweet potato or a yam. Actually I always thought they were the same thing. This is a terrible thing to say considering I grew up in IDAHO! You think someone would have had me in a POTATO 101 class by third grade.
potato, sweet potato, yam
The fact Is that sweet potatoes and yams are two different vegetables. A true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Yams are generally sweeter and contain more natural sugar than sweet potatoes – and have a higher moisture content.
Now I don’t suggest you do this around dinner time but If you are ever in need of checking this and comparing sugar content you may want to use a brix meter. It’s probably more appropriate for those of you who are expert chefs, and or someone who is growing, picking, canning, and or processing yams. If so, a handy tool is the Atago PAL-1 “pocket” refractometer. This device can measure Brix 0.0 to 53%, which is adequate for yams.
Using the PAL-1 refractometer (Brix), there are basically two different ways to measure the Brix of baked yams.
- Cut a baked yam in half and gently push the prism of the PAL-1 refractometer against the flesh of the yam. It is important when doing this to make sure there is no air between the yam and the prism.
- Grate a raw yam, strain it, and then measure the juice. It is however recommended to cook the yam some as the starch in the yam can vary results.
With the holidays approaching I thought it would be fun to write about something relevant!
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