Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and peel the potatoes as thinly as possible, then keep them in cold water until needed.
Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.
Add 1½ teaspoons of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.
Boil and serve
Bring to a boil and gently boil until the potatoes are soft but not broken, about 20 to 40 minutes.
Drain the water.
Return the saucepan to the heat with the lid half on.
Shake the pan to make the potatoes floury.
Serve in a hot tureen.
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 that softens when boiled, giving the flesh its soft, floury texture once water is drained.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes take up some flavour as they boil.
The step that matters
Boiling gently until soft but not broken. Vigorous boiling tears the potato surfaces and breaks the pieces apart, while gentle heat cooks the starch through evenly. Stopping at the right point keeps the potatoes intact.
“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.
More boiled potatoes recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.