Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and peel the potatoes as thinly as possible.
Keep the potatoes in cold water until ready to use.
Boil
Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.
Add ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.
Bring to a boil, then gently boil until the potatoes are soft but not broken, about 20 to 40 minutes.
Drain the water and return the saucepan to the heat with the lid half on.
Shake the pan to make the potatoes floury, then 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 is the main component, and cooking softens it into a tender, floury texture.
The step that matters
Gently boil until soft but not broken. Boiling too vigorously knocks the potatoes against each other and the pan, breaking their surfaces and leaving them ragged. A gentle simmer lets the starch cook through while the outer structure holds together.
“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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