Baked Potatoes

[weinoo]

I am going on a baked potato kick. That's what a good toaster oven will do.

What are your favorite potatoes for baking?

I'm not talking about roasted potatoes which are cut-up, tossed with oil or duck fat and salt and roasted - I'm talking about baked potatoes, where you can eat the skin and all (and I'm buying organic, btw, because I think potatoes are probably the worst vegetable when it comes to how they're grown as a commercial product).

Tip, tricks, temps, etc.

[rotuts]

Ive always read that apples, esp apples from Washington state are the very worst offenders re 'added bonus toxins'

I too love a baked potato. I like russets. i poke them a bit and then microwave them a bit then Breville'um.

I like a very crispy skin, which is the point for me. very very crispy. so at least 400 for the temp

until 'very crispy' they crunch when you slit the tops and smooosh the two ends together w a potholder in each hand ...

they are so hot.

I use fresh green onions on the opened potato green and white thinly sliced. not as much butter as the old days ...

I did used to make the above w Bernaise on the opened potato in the distant past. liked it better than hollandaise.

thanks for this thread. next time I do B.P.'s Ill add a couple of SV Eggs !! you know the Perfect Yolk etc !

[rlibkind]

Twice baked is nice. I did it last night with a leftover baked potato.

For initial baking, I try to use 8-12 ounce russets of reasonably symmetrical shape. Scrub and dry potatoes, prick a few times with sharp paring knife, bake in pre-heated 425F oven for about an hour.

If I store until next day I let them cool then place in fridge unwrapped, so they don't get soggy.

Next day I place whole taters direct from fridge in toaster oven at. 225 for 20-25 minutes. Then halve longitudinally and scoop out flesh, leaving a thin coat of flesh next to skin as best as I can. Skins then go back in toaster oven at 350 for 10 minutes while I prep flesh.

To still warm flesh (nuke it in bowl if you need to warm it up) I add 2 teaspoons butter per potato and salt to taste. Then about a quarter-ounce (7-8 grams) Cheddar, Parmesan or other good grating cheese and roughly mash together. No need for milk or cream, tho a very small amount might work.

I lightly (do not pack) fill the skins and put them back in 350 toaster oven for another 6-8 minutes.

Skin will be almost potato chip crunchy.

[jayt90]

Russets are fine, but thick skinned, dirty colored, and somewhat bland.

Kennebec is my choice, smaller, perfect oval, thin skinned, and flavorful.

They are difficult to find, but worth it.

[kayb]

I like russets, but I also like Yukon Golds. And I like to rub mine with oil before baking. Helps crisp up the skin, I find.

Favorite toppers: Crumbled bacon and a soft-boiled egg; chili and cheese; shredded pot roast and gravy; diced ham and grated Swiss with a dab of good mustard.

[Shelby]

Russets are my fave for baking. I rub in oil and then put salt all over. And I mean a generous salt rub. I don't cover them, I put them in a glass dish. Then I bake them at around 400-425 until done. An hour so so. Skin is crispy and good, inside is fluffy and yummy.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Shelby (log)

[lindag]

I read somewhere (maybe CI) that if you were to buy only one type of veg that's organic it should be celery.

I don't think I've ever met a potato I didn't like .

Edited February 2, 2014 by lindag (log)

[rlibkind]

I just bake 'em on o en rack to assure all-around crispness of ski. If I remember I'll turn them over halfway through, but not necessary.

I like Yukons and Kennebecs, but because I want that great potato skin I only bake with russets.

[mgaretz]

Russets for me too. For fun, try a slow bake: 225f for about 4 hours. It's also great if you are slow cooking something else and want to use the same appliance for the potatoes. I usually do this on my smoker, but every now and then in the Breville.

[rotuts]

nice idea

good crunchy skin w the 225 x 4 ?

[mgaretz]

nice idea

good crunchy skin w the 225 x 4 ?

Usually but it can depend on what else you are cooking. If that something else is giving off a lot of moisture, then the potato skin will be less crisp.

[Jaymes]

Russets are my fave for baking. I rub in oil and then put salt all over. And I mean a generous salt rub. I don't cover them, I put them in a glass dish. Then I bake them at around 400-425 until done. An hour so so. Skin is crispy and good, inside is fluffy and yummy.

Me, too. Rub with oil, sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Skin gets really crispy.

[thatchairlady]

Like to use a baked potato as a base for lunch/dinner. Topped with home-made chili or sloppy joe... easy lunch.

Have ya ever had one EXPLODE in oven?? Can't remember ever poking potatoes when I was growing up... never had one explode. Since I've had my own kitchen for MANY years, always stab a few times with a fork. Over past year have had THREE explode?? Opened oven door to check and insides of potato all over inside of oven! Another time reached in to give a squeeze to test for doneness and EVERYTHING inside came FLYING out all over the oven... just skin left in oven mitt?!?

[judiu]

Chairlady, hope you ate the skin with butter and cheese for lunch!

[ambra]

I adore baked potatoes. I especially love them with bacon and cheddar and sour cream.

I really love twice-baked. I'm going to give this recipe a try tomorrow:

http://food52.com/recipes/20367-twice-baked-potatoes-with-kale

(Odd, this is the second time I have posted a food52 page it's not even one of my go-to sites!)

[HungryChris]

I like the Russets as well. I bake them in a 500 degree oven after smearing them with a small amount of bacon fat that I keep for that purpose until they are just coated. To me, the skin is one of the best parts and I like it crispy, If I have sour cream, I like it with chives in summer months, when my chives are up and finely chopped green onions in winter. If I have no sour cream, then I am happy with butter.

I heard Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity on NPR say that once you try a baked potato with very good olive oil, you would not waver from it, but have not yet tried it.

HC

[gfweb]

That would assume that one is fond of olive oil.

[mgaretz]

I once had smashed, baked potatoes with olive oil at the La Brea Bakery restaurant. Meh. Give me butter any day.

[Toliver]

Russets are my fave for baking. I rub in oil and then put salt all over. And I mean a generous salt rub. I don't cover them, I put them in a glass dish. Then I bake them at around 400-425 until done. An hour so so. Skin is crispy and good, inside is fluffy and yummy.

Me, too. Rub with oil, sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Skin gets really crispy.

Yes to this and this. My mom always rubbed Crisco on the exteriors. Same end result...crispy skin.

And a suggested rule of thumb is to always bake extra potatoes. Refrigerate the extras and dice them into chunks (with the skin on) the next morning for home fried potatoes. Yum!

[Shel_B]

Since this is a thread about potatoes, and it was mentioned earlier "that if you were to buy only one type of veg that's organic it should be celery," I thought I'd add a copy of a letter I received from a potato grower on PEI, the "Idaho" of Canada. We were corresponding about how insipid I found some commercial potatoes to be. As a result of this letter, some research, and growing my own potatoes, I'll never buy a commercial potato again, and especially so with russets.

=====================================================================

Hi Shel,

I know a little about how potatoes are grown, commercial and organic.

I don't know specifically about Idaho, but similarly in Canada there is a potato region on Prince Edward Island, where like Idaho they are known as the potato capital, and potatoes have been grown there for many years.

Much of the soil has become depleted and in poor condition over many years of growing potatoes, which are heavy feeders. To just supply chemical fertilizers and then spray pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, when you look at that soil, it just looks dead. Try to find an earthworm, not bloody likely. Soil erosion due to cultivation methods is also an issue, as is growing a "monoculture" where potatoes only are grown again and again and for miles.

Now I never blame the farmer, in PEI, many of them are indentured in my opinion, working under contract for giant food corporations to produce terribly cheap potatoes for the frozen french fry manufacturers. So the market economy at work wants to do things to have the cheapest cost, the most profit, the public generally doesn't notice the poor quality, especially when you add the grease and salt.

Now I'm not pinko or anything, but it's interesting in contrast when you go to Cuba. The whole island has been converted to organic.

So to farm large quantities of potatoes industrially.... you want all the plants to die off at the same time. (When you want to harvest potatoes for storage, the skins only firm up a couple weeks after the tops die off, so that's when you want to harvest them to have a good tough skin to store well). Old school small scale organic growing would have waited for the plant tops to die, dug that up accordingly.

Enter Monsanto... why not spray all your potato green tops with Round-Up, then they can all be killed at the same time, you can know the date, and go from there as to when you want to harvest. Potatoes were #3 on a list of the worst contaminated crops in terms of chemicals. They regularly are in those "dirty dozen" lists, of the most contaminated vegetables. Roundup BTW kills by being absorbed through the leaves then going down the to roots in my understanding, to kill the roots to kill the plant. Extra bonus: inhibits sprouting, if potatoes are fully dead they won't sprout at all.

Anyhow, I'm fortunate that my husband grows amazing potatoes in his organic garden. He's got varieties that he's collected from various places, some red on the inside, blue, purple, yellow, black truffle, long skinny buttery fingerlings, etc... They grow very easily, although he does add some "amendments", things like compost, a little kelp and organic minerals. He puts a little pine needle with them (or pine shavings) to prevent scab, a fungus that can be warded off by acidifying the soil a little instead of needing a fungicide.

The taste is night and day.

The organisms we're talking about are part of a healthy soil, the organisms contribute to breaking down things to make nutrients available. A plant with good organic nutrition (rather than just chemical N-P-K fertilizer) is better able to resists pests, disease, and produces tastier food IMO.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For my 2 cents, it's either well-scrubbed, skin-on Cecilia (gold) or Super Chola (red with gold patches), baked in a ceramic casserole with a drizzle of olive oil and some spices, until they're fork tender.

Then again, 99% of the spuds in my area are organic smallholder grown, and I've never seen the Ecuadorian cultivars anywhere but here, so YMMV.

[judiu]

Shel, that's just sad!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've had very good potatoes on Prince Edward Island, but that was about 1970, so things may have changed. On my baked potatoes I like olive oil and sour cream better than butter. As I recall earthworms are an invasive European species and not at all native to North America.

[Paul Bacino]

WE will cook BP-- wrap in foil, Coarse sea salt and Evoo, possible with a lttle rosemary. cooked on the rack @425 till 205 internal temp with my Thermapen ( ). AS they cook i put in a Le Cruest casserole pot toward the end, once tators are to temp I remove them and put in the pot and take it all out of the oven. The will stay warm and cure for at least up to 2 hrs. The yellow ones are my favorite and they come out super creammy

[Alex]

Like many others, I use russets, about 1/2 pound each. However, even with organic, I highly recommend scrubbing them very well. Per our friend Cooks Illustrated, I simply poke a couple of holes in each and bake at 350F for 65-75 minutes in the Breville. When it's done, immediately slash an X in the top and push the ends in a little bit.