Can potatoes go stale?

[gfweb]

I cooked some fingerling white potatoes (dusted with smoked paprika...very nice) for snacking yesterday.  Fresh out of the oven they were moist and with the great creamy and dense texture of a Yukon Gold. 2 hours later they were dry and mealy. What's up with that?

 

Was this a change in starch structure that excluded moisture and changed texture sort of like what goes on in bread when it stales?

 

I wonder if cooking in acid water would help. Maybe strengthen the pectin.

 

And BTW what a PITA this is. Our supermarkets  don't usually give the type of potato in the little sacs of fingerlings.  I know that Russian Banana fingerlings don't do this but I have no way to know how which others are OK.

[pastrygirl]

Potatoes have pectin? 

 

I'm not so sure about that, but since dry and mealy is a normal texture for potatoes, it may just be the variety in that bag.  How is the texture when you warm them up again?  Stale bread and cold hard cooked rice soften again when heated, so maybe your fingerlings will too?

[TicTac]

So easily avoided...

 

https://www.google.ca/search?q=do+potatoes+have+pectin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=L3RhWPzDLefbjwTsmrNA

 

Especially these days.

[gfweb]

8 minutes ago, TicTac said:

So easily avoided...

 

https://www.google.ca/search?q=do+potatoes+have+pectin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=L3RhWPzDLefbjwTsmrNA

 

Especially these days.

 

What's your point?

[gfweb]

14 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Potatoes have pectin? 

 

I'm not so sure about that, but since dry and mealy is a normal texture for potatoes, it may just be the variety in that bag.  How is the texture when you warm them up again?  Stale bread and cold hard cooked rice soften again when heated, so maybe your fingerlings will too?

 

They do have pectin.

 

Not all of them are dry and mealy. Russets and purples...for sure are. The waxy ones like reds and Yukons stay firm after roasting and cooling.  Weird thing was that the ones yesterday were firm and great for 45 min or so and then got mealy and dry; as though there was starch change.

 

Neat idea to try reheating. I'll see if any are left.

[TicTac]

16 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

What's your point?

 

I suppose I should have quoted Pastrygirl - it was directed to her.

 

You were quite right in your initial post.  And I agree that oxidization does a number on cooked potatoes!

 

 

[pastrygirl]

40 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

They do have pectin.

 

Not all of them are dry and mealy. Russets and purples...for sure are. The waxy ones like reds and Yukons stay firm after roasting and cooling.  Weird thing was that the ones yesterday were firm and great for 45 min or so and then got mealy and dry; as though there was starch change.

 

Neat idea to try reheating. I'll see if any are left.

 

Interesting!  It never seems apparent in the cooked texture that there is pectin, or at least not the pectin texture I know from candy making.  So maybe acid would help!

 

No of course not all are dry and mealy and starches do change as they cool.  McGee can tell you more if you have access to his On Food and Cooking.

[shain]

Potato starch does retrogradate as it cools, and indeed expels water in the process. Just like with bread it happens more quickly at lower temperatures. Reheating helps only a little, and tends to produce leathery texture.

[gfweb]

I've been trolling around on google and can find a few papers that address texture and starch/pectin content eg http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf60184a031

 

But none of it so far is an authoritative review that puts it all in perspective and gives advice on which one can act.

 

ETA: Here we go. I haven't digested it yet, but the answer lies within   http://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/4439/3/Effect of preheating.pdf

Edited December 27, 2016 by gfweb (log)

[gfweb]

And more re waxy vs mealy  http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Difference-Between-Waxy-and-Mealy-Potatoes1.pdf

[Paul Fink]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

And more re waxy vs mealy  http://www.cookingscienceguy.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Difference-Between-Waxy-and-Mealy-Potatoes1.pdf

 

The research matches what we knew about the varieties. I like this line from the paper the most

Quote

However these results are for only one lot of commercial potatoes, and it is well known there is significant variation in density and starch content even between potatoes of the same variety.