Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and peel the potatoes.
Soak the potatoes in cold water for 30 minutes in fall or 1 to 2 hours in winter and spring.
Cook and serve
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft, checking with a skewer.
If the outside is soft but the center is undercooked, add 1 pint of cold water to finish cooking.
Drain the potatoes and keep them uncovered in a warm place until serving.
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 determines whether they turn fluffy or waxy and hold their shape when boiled.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the potatoes absorb flavour as they boil.
The step that matters
Cooking until soft, checked with a skewer. Potatoes cook unevenly, so the outside can soften before the center is done. Testing the center with a skewer, rather than trusting timing alone, prevents undercooked or overcooked potatoes.
“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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