Boiled and Steamed Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the old potatoes well in cold water and scrub them clean.
If the potatoes are diseased, peel them and cut out any eyes or black specks; otherwise, boil them in their skins.
Boil and steam
Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.
Sprinkle with salt.
Boil the potatoes for 20 to 30 minutes.
Check if the potatoes are tender by inserting a fork into them.
Drain the water.
Cover the potatoes with a clean cloth in the saucepan.
Let the potatoes steam with the lid on until dry.
Serve
Carefully peel the potatoes.
Place them in a hot serving 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
- Old potatoes
- Starchy flesh that becomes fluffy and absorbs moisture well when boiled and steamed.
- New potatoes
- Waxier, firmer flesh that holds its shape better after boiling.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the potatoes as they cook in the water.
The step that matters
Steaming the potatoes dry. Letting excess water evaporate under the lid, after draining and covering with a cloth, keeps the potatoes from turning soggy and lets the surface dry out.
“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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