To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the potatoes in cold water.
Peel the potatoes thinly and wash again.
In a pot, bring salted water to a boil, enough to cover the potatoes.
Boil and steam
Add the whole potatoes to the boiling water and boil hard for 1-2 minutes.
Reduce heat and let them boil gently until the skin bursts.
Pour off most of the water, leaving enough to steam the potatoes.
Cover with a close-fitting lid and ensure the heat is not too strong.
Check doneness by piercing gently with a sharp object; they should not break.
Dry
Pour off any remaining water and dry the potatoes carefully by shaking the pan gently.
Place a clean dish towel inside the pot on top of the potatoes to absorb moisture.
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 flesh that becomes the dish, cooked until tender through the skin.
- Salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes take up some flavour as they boil.
The step that matters
Boil gently after the first hard boil. Once the skin bursts, a hard boil would break the potatoes apart. A gentle simmer and a lid let them steam through while keeping their shape.
“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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