Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrub and wash the potatoes, then peel them very thinly and remove any eyes.
Wash the potatoes again and place them in a saucepan with cold water and salt.
Boil and dry
Boil gently for 20 to 30 minutes until tender; check with a skewer.
Strain off the water, keep the lid off, and shake the pan to let steam escape.
Cover with a clean cloth to absorb remaining steam and place near the fire for 5 minutes.
Shake the potatoes over the fire until dry, then serve on a hot dish.
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
- Form the bulk of the dish; their starch softens into a fluffy, tender texture when boiled.
- Salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes are flavoured as they simmer.
The step that matters
Boil gently until tender. Boiling hard can break the potatoes apart and waterlog them, while gentle simmering cooks them evenly through. Testing with a skewer confirms the centres are soft before draining.
“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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