Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Peel old potatoes and soak them in cold water for 1 hour before boiling.
Place the soaked old potatoes in fresh cold water and set over the fire to boil.
For new potatoes, place them directly into boiling water just before cooking.
New potatoes are better steamed than boiled.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Old potatoes
- Floury, starchy flesh that softens and breaks down gently when boiled.
- New potatoes
- Waxy, firmer flesh that holds its shape better during cooking.
The step that matters
Placing new potatoes directly into boiling water. Starting new potatoes in boiling water cooks the outside quickly and helps keep their firm, waxy texture. Starting them in cold water lets them absorb more water and become soft or mushy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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