To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sort the potatoes and choose them of equal size.
Wash them with a scrubbing brush just before cooking.
Boil and serve
Boil the potatoes in their skins, cutting out a small portion from the top.
Fill a pot with cold water and add a handful of salt.
When the water boils, check it with cold water until the potatoes are thoroughly boiled.
Pour off the water through a colander and let the potatoes dry.
Serve the potatoes in a napkin without a cover, or raise the cover slightly to let steam escape.
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
- Their starch softens into a tender, fluffy texture as they cook through.
The step that matters
Boiling until thoroughly cooked. Cooking potatoes until the starch fully gelatinizes gives a tender, fluffy interior. Stopping early leaves them firm and chalky, while overcooking makes them waterlogged and crumbly.
“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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