The first time I peeled a yam barehanded, I spent the next hour scratching my palms like I had rolled in fiberglass. I washed them. Scrubbed them. Soaked them. Nothing helped. I googled “yam hands itchy” at 9pm and discovered I was not alone — this is a thing, and it has a fix.

Yams and sweet potatoes contain calcium oxalate crystals — tiny needle-shaped compounds that irritate skin on contact. Some varieties are worse than others. The purple-skinned Japanese sweet potatoes barely bother me; the orange-fleshed garnet yams make me regret every life choice.

Cold Water Is Your First Defense

Fill a bowl with cold water before you start peeling. As soon as you finish each yam, drop it in. The water washes away sap before it dries and crystallizes on your skin. Dry sap on skin equals guaranteed itch.

Rinse your hands under cold running water every two or three yams. Hot water opens pores and makes the irritation worse — counterintuitive, but true.

Gloves Work — But Choose the Right Kind

Latex or nitrile gloves block the sap completely. Get the snug-fitting kind — loose dishwashing gloves make peeling dangerous because you lose grip on the peeler. I keep a box of nitrile gloves in my kitchen drawer specifically for yam duty.

If gloves feel wrong to you (and I get it, they do to me too), rub a thin layer of coconut oil or olive oil on your hands before peeling. The oil forms a barrier the sap cannot penetrate. Reapply after washing your hands.

If You Already Itch

Forget soap. Forget scratching. Run your hands under cold water with a splash of vinegar — the acid helps dissolve oxalate crystals. If you have baking soda, make a paste with a few drops of water and rub it into your palms. Let it sit 30 seconds, rinse cold.

After drying, apply a thick moisturizer. The itching usually fades within 30 minutes once the crystals are washed away.

I now treat yam-peeling as a gloves-on job. The 15 seconds it takes to pull them on beats an hour of palm-scratching and googling remedies.