Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select potatoes of uniform size and wash them.
Peel the potatoes and drop them into cold water to prevent discoloration.
Cook and hold
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft but not broken.
Drain the water and place the uncovered kettle on the back of the stove to let them steam until serving.
Boiling with skins on
If boiling with skins on, wash the potatoes and cut a narrow band of skin from the center.
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
- Starch swells and cell walls soften as they cook, giving a tender, fluffy interior.
The step that matters
Cook until soft but not broken. As potato starch gelatinizes, the cells soften. Overcooking lets cell walls separate, so the potatoes turn mushy and fall apart. Test them early and stop when they are tender at the center.
“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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