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To Boil Potatoes

A simple method for boiling potatoes, optionally with mint for new potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mint work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 363 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash potatoes well and cut off a small piece at either end to let out steam.

  2. Place potatoes in a pot and barely cover with cold water.

Boil

  1. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes, or longer for larger potatoes.

  2. Add cold water occasionally to prevent boiling too fast.

  3. Pour off the first water and refill with cold water.

  4. Change the water at least once during cooking for better flavor.

  5. Add salt as desired.

Cook new potatoes

  1. Wash and scrape new potatoes.

  2. Boil new potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes.

Dry

  1. When nearly done, pour off the water and cover the pot with a folded towel.

  2. Let the potatoes dry slowly at the side of the fire without covering them completely.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + minttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Old potatoes
Starch cooks through to give a soft, floury interior when boiled gently.
Cold water
Cooks the potatoes evenly, and adding it cools the boil to keep it gentle.

The step that matters

Keep the boil gentle. A vigorous rolling boil tumbles the potatoes against each other and the pot, so their skins split and they break apart. Adding cold water now and then lowers the temperature and keeps them 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.

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