Lancashire Method of Boiling Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape the peels off the potatoes instead of paring them with a knife.
In a pan, bring enough boiling water to barely cover the potatoes.
Add a handful of salt to the boiling water.
Boil and dry
Place the scraped potatoes into the boiling water and cover the pan.
Boil until the potatoes are tender.
Drain the water and place the pan near the fire without the cover to remove excess moisture.
Serve
Serve the potatoes on a dish, ensuring they are fluffy and dry on the surface.
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 base; their starch cooks soft and becomes fluffy when the surface moisture is driven off.
The step that matters
Drying the potatoes after draining. Excess surface water makes boiled potatoes soggy and waterlogged. Returning the drained potatoes to the pan without the lid lets steam escape, leaving the surface dry and fluffy.
“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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