To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and scrub the potatoes clean with a hard brush.
Rinse the potatoes well and arrange them compactly in a saucepan.
Boil
Cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to a boil.
Add 1 large teaspoon of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.
Simmer the potatoes until nearly done, then boil rapidly for the last 2-3 minutes.
Check for tenderness by probing with a fork.
Drain and serve
Drain the water immediately and lift the lid to let steam escape.
Place the potatoes on a trevet over the fire until moisture evaporates.
Peel and serve quickly, either in a hot napkin or a covered dish to allow steam to 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
- Starch structure sets as they cook, so evenly sized potatoes cook through at the same rate.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes absorb a little salt as they boil.
The step that matters
Drain and let the steam escape. Leftover water and trapped steam make potatoes soggy and waterlogged. Draining at once and letting them dry briefly keeps their texture firm 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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