Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and peel the potatoes.
Soak the potatoes in cold water for 30 minutes in fall or 1 to 2 hours in winter and spring.
Boil
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the potatoes to the boiling water.
Add 1 pint of cold water to the pot to help cook the center of large potatoes.
Cook until soft, checking by piercing with a skewer.
Drain and hold
Drain the potatoes.
Keep them uncovered in a warm place until serving.
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
- Provide the starchy body of the dish; cooking softens their starch into a tender, fluffy interior.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes take up flavour as they boil.
The step that matters
Cook until soft, checking by piercing with a skewer. Potatoes can look done outside while the center stays firm. Starch must gelatinize fully throughout, so test the thickest potato with a skewer, which should slide in with no resistance.
“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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