How to Cook Potatoes
You need to know the type to know how to cook it.
The humble potato is a root vegetable that we don’t give much credit. We blame it on making us fat in the form of French fries or mashed potatoes or potato salad, where it becomes a vehicle transporting oil or butter or mayo to our lips.
Potatoes have a creamy texture, and they can be fried for their crispy starch, but they are a vegetable that can sustain you both nutritionally and enhance your plate with flavor.
Let’s bring them out of the side dish realm.
Potatoes are in the nightshade family, botanically known as Solanaceae. When you see them growing out of the ground, the foliage on the plant resembles tomato leaves.
Sweet potatoes are in the lily family, Convolvulaceae.
Both potato plants are native to the Americas and get lumped together, but this is about the nightshade.
Potatoes have a season.
Just like all vegetables, farmers harvest potatoes when they are ripe in their season. Their season is usually in the early summer, of course depending on where you live, this varies.
Because conventional farms optimize potato breeds for storage, they can be up to a year old at the grocery store. The starches and sugars in the potato change depending on their storage conditions and time. This changes the way that the potato cooks. Avoid eating potatoes in the late winter and early spring before the new crop is ready.
Potato Types
There are over 4000 varieties of potatoes in the world.
In the United States, we grow about 50, most of those at small farms. You will only see three or four varieties at the grocery store, usually russets, red potatoes, and Yukon gold.
All of these varieties are classified into three potato types: waxy, starchy, and all-purpose.
The category is relevant because the type of potato is going to tell you how to cook it.
If you cut up a potato and put it in a pot of soup, when it cooks, it will hold its shape or fall apart. The type of potato determines how the potato holds up to cooking.
And you need to cook your potatoes.
The Potato Basics
The cooking method you use depends on the potato
Waxy potatoes should be boiled or roasted. In the grocery store, these are the red potatoes. And fingerling potatoes, that are now becoming mainstream, are waxy.
Use waxy potatoes for potato salad if you don’t want it to become mushy.
Starchy potatoes are best baked and fried. These are the russet potatoes.
Use starchy potatoes for baking and mashed potatoes.
Use all-purpose potatoes interchangeably in all cooking methods. These are they Yukon gold, or sometimes you will see a thin-skinned white potato. Yukon gold is my favorite grocery store potato. They have more flavor than a russet, and they make good mashed potatoes or hash browns.
The potatoes in the all-purpose family have thin skins that you can leave on. The thin skin doesn’t need peeling, so preparation is easy.
The Simplest Recipes
Baked potatoes
Wash and dry your starchy or all-purpose potatoes, poke one or two holes in the potato, and put on a baking sheet. Bake at 400°F for 45–50 minutes, flipping the potato halfway through the cooking time. When you can easily pierce the potato with a knife, it is ready to eat.
Do not wrap baked potatoes in foil. The foil creates a moist environment so that the potato is steamed instead of baked.
Parsley Potatoes
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds small waxy or all-purpose potatoes
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 3 tablespoons butter cut into slices
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- freshly ground black pepper
Add the potatoes to a medium saucepan and cover with cold water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a rolling simmer for 20–25 minutes (depending on the size of the potatoes). The potatoes are done when easily pierced with a knife, and the skin is beginning to fall away. Drain the water from the pan. Quickly add the potatoes back to the saucepan with the butter and parsley and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Give the potatoes a vigorous stir with a wooden spoon or shake with the lid, so the potatoes break up a bit. Let sit for 5–10 minutes and serve.
Potato Names
You might come across some of these varieties in the market. This list is just a handful of the more common varieties.
Starchy — Russet, German Butterball, Goldrush
All-purpose — white potatoes like Elba or Onway, Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, Kennebec, Katahdin, Kerr’s Pink
Waxy Potatoes — Red Bliss, Fingerlings
New potatoes are sold in the late spring or early summer and are dug fresh from the ground. They are low in starch and, therefore, higher in sugar and have a creamy texture.
Potato Facts
Among many minerals and micronutrients, potatoes are a good source of potassium, vitamin C, and fiber. They also have resistant starch, which doesn’t get digested in the small intestine, it helps to feed the good bacteria in or large intestine.
Most of the nutrients are in the outer layer of the potato, so avoid peeling.
Enjoy them at their best
Simple baked and boiled potatoes highlight the potato flavor and texture. Seek out new varieties in the late spring and summer when the new crop comes to the markets. Potatoes are more than just the vehicle to transport ketchup to your mouth. Eat them and find out.