Fingerling Potatoes

[paulraphael]

I'm in love with these things ... they're delicious roasted, pureed, or whatever. But I just read in Peterson's Vegetables that it's not a potato variety at all, but can be any number of different kinds.

The one's I've been getting are from whole foods, are a deep yellow/orange color on the inside, with a red skin, and are oblong, about 2 to 4 inches long. Any idea what they are?

[Joe Blowe]

I'm not familiar with Peterson's Vegetables, or why he may be so off-base about this. Or, maybe, you read incorrectly.

Yes, fingerling potatoes are in the potato family!

http://www.google.com/search?q=fingerling+tuberosum

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Solanac...sum/cultivar/0/

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SOTU

Plenty of picture identification at those sites and Google...

[gfweb]

I think that Peterson's means to say that fingerlings come from no one type of potato and are not a dwarf breed in themselves. Rather, a fingerling can be of many types of potato. My understanding is that they are the equivalent of "new "potatoes...just not from a round potato variety.

[Qwerty]

Yeah, he wasn't saying that they are not potatoes, just that many different types can be labeled as fingerling. Think of it as a style rather than a specific type of potato.

[paulraphael]

I think that Peterson's means to say that fingerlings come from no one type of potato and are not a dwarf breed in themselves. Rather,  a fingerling can be of many types of potato.  My understanding is that they are the equivalent of "new "potatoes...just not from a round potato variety.

←

Right, this is what I assume he means.

But the fingerlings I've been getting all seem to be one type. I'd like to know the actual variety. They have a distinctive, strong flavor, and dark yellow flesh.

Could they be Rattes?

Edited December 30, 2007 by paulraphael (log)