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To Boil Potatoes

Boiled potatoes are cooked in salted water until tender, then peeled and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and scrub the potatoes clean with a hard brush, avoiding any cuts.

  2. Rinse the potatoes and arrange them compactly in a saucepan.

Boil

  1. Add cold water to cover the potatoes and bring to a boil.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt for every quart of water.

  3. Simmer the potatoes until nearly done, then boil rapidly for the last 2-3 minutes, checking for tenderness by probing with a fork.

Drain and serve

  1. Drain the water immediately and allow steam to escape by lifting the lid.

  2. Place the potatoes on a trivet or beside the fire to evaporate moisture.

  3. Peel and serve quickly, preferably in their skins.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Potatoes
Starchy flesh that cooks into a soft, tender interior when boiled through.

The step that matters

Drain and let steam escape. Water left on the surface and trapped under the lid keeps the potatoes wet and heavy. Letting steam escape and evaporating surface moisture helps them dry, so the skins stay intact and the flesh does not turn waterlogged.

“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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