Sweet potatoes (or camote in Spanish) are sweet tasting tubers which originated in Central America. Most of the tubers referred to as yams in the U.S. are actually sweet potatoes. The red color (jewel) sweet potatoes have a more moist flesh than the light beige/yellow color sweet potatoes. Canned sweet potatoes are typically the red variety.
The sweet potato can be baked, boiled, mashed or pureed. It is also used for making Sweet Potato pie. Canned sweet potatoes are cooked then canned.