To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the potatoes and leave the skins on.
Place them in a pot and cover with water, adding plenty of salt.
Boil and dry
Bring the potatoes to a boil.
When the skins begin to crack, remove from heat and drain the water.
Cover the pot with a cloth or lid (not tightly) to let steam escape.
Return the pot to the heat until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked and dry.
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
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and fluffy as their starch cooks through.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes absorb flavour as they cook.
The step that matters
Draining and drying after the skins begin to crack. Once the potatoes are drained, leaving the lid loose lets steam escape so surface moisture evaporates. Trapped water makes them waterlogged and heavy instead of dry and fluffy.
“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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