Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the potatoes thoroughly.
Do not peel them in fall or early winter.
In late winter or spring, peel a ring around the potatoes and cut away blemishes before soaking.
Boil and steam
Boil the potatoes in either cold or boiling salted water, choosing your preferred method.
If using cold water, do not cover the kettle.
If using boiling water, cover the pot while cooking.
When almost tender, pour off most of the water, cover tightly, and steam until done.
Remove the cover and let the potatoes stand for a few minutes to dry.
Serve
Peel if necessary before 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, whose texture changes with cooking method and peeling.
- Salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes take up flavour as they boil.
The step that matters
Covering or leaving the pot uncovered during boiling. Cold-water potatoes are left uncovered so the water heats gradually, while boiling-water potatoes are covered to keep the water at a steady boil. Mixing these up changes cooking time and texture.
“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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