Boiled Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fill a pot with enough water to cover the potatoes and bring it to a boil.
Cut a ring around each potato to make them mealy and easier to peel.
Add a tablespoon of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.
Boil
Once the water is boiling, add the potatoes and boil for about 15 minutes, depending on their size.
Check doneness by piercing with a fork; if it goes in easily, drain the water.
Do not let the potatoes break open while boiling.
Rest and keep warm
Cover the potatoes with a dry towel and place the pot on the back of the stove to keep warm for 5 to 10 minutes.
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
- Their starch softens as it cooks, giving a tender, mealy interior texture.
The step that matters
Keep the potatoes from breaking open while boiling. Potatoes hold their shape while their cell walls stay intact. Vigorous bubbling jostles them, and as the starch swells, the skins can split and the flesh can fall apart.
“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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