[Sca-cooks] Old World vs. New World Fruits

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>I thought that yams and peanuts were African in origin and thus know to late
>period Europeans.
>
>Daniel

Depends on what *you* mean by yams.

Nyame are African. But what is commonly called "yam" in the USA is 
actually a form of sweet potato.

If it's yellow or orange inside, it isn't a yam, it's a sweet potato. 
These are from North America and show up in the 16th c. as batata. 
There's at least one recipe in the Elizabethan corpus, and a recipe 
or two in the Spanish-language corpus, and ISTR a possible recipe in 
the German-language corpus.

*REAL* African yams - nyame - are white inside, and somewhat woody.

Anahita