Boiling potatoes in their skins
Boiling potatoes has given rise to two sayings:
1) You should not peel potatoes before boiling.
2) You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water.
The first suggests that potatoes should be always cooked in their skins, to prevent water penetrating and making the potatoes go soft and break up.
The second suggests that if potatoes cool in their cooking water, they will absorb some of it, which will give them an unpleasant flavour.
True or false? Let's try the experiment...
1) You should not peel potatoes before boiling.
2) You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water.
The first suggests that potatoes should be always cooked in their skins, to prevent water penetrating and making the potatoes go soft and break up.
The second suggests that if potatoes cool in their cooking water, they will absorb some of it, which will give them an unpleasant flavour.
True or false? Let's try the experiment...
Last modified on: July 25th 2017
Keywords for this recipe:BoilingPotatoesWaterLegendsSayingFactsHow long does it take?
Time required for this recipe:
| Preparation | Cooking | Start to finish |
|---|---|---|
| 20 min. | 10 min. | 30 min. |
At what time:
- When will I finish if I start the recipe at ... ?
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Step by step recipe
Stage 1
4 potatoes, of 2 different varieties (roseval and bintje here), will be used for a thorough test.
Stage 2 - 10 min.
One of each kind is peeled.
Stage 3 - 5 min.
All 4 are washed and dried, then weighed precisely and the weights noted.
Stage 4 - 10 min.
The potatoes are all boiled in water.
Stage 5 - 5 min.
When cooked, the potatoes are removed from the water, dried and weighed again.
Result: no change in weight.
Conclusion "You should not peel potatoes before boiling": false, peeled or not they behave the same.
Result: no change in weight.
Conclusion "You should not peel potatoes before boiling": false, peeled or not they behave the same.
Stage 6
Next the potatoes are left to cool in their cooking water until cold, then dried and weighed again.
Result: the weight of the peeled potatoes has increased by 4 grammes each.
Conclusion "You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water": it's true if they are peeled, otherwise they will absorb some of the water.
Result: the weight of the peeled potatoes has increased by 4 grammes each.
Conclusion "You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water": it's true if they are peeled, otherwise they will absorb some of the water.
Conclusion
Both true and false: It's not necessary to leave the skins on potatoes for boiling, peeled or unpeeled they do not absorb water during cooking.
But you should not leave peeled potatoes to cool in the cooking water, because they will absorb water (about 7% in these tests). On the other hand, this "sponge" property of peeled potatoes might be an advantage when cooking them in something other than water, milk or cream for example, as they will absorb some of the good flavour.
But you should not leave peeled potatoes to cool in the cooking water, because they will absorb water (about 7% in these tests). On the other hand, this "sponge" property of peeled potatoes might be an advantage when cooking them in something other than water, milk or cream for example, as they will absorb some of the good flavour.
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The next step of the experimentation would be probably to cook potatoes with and without skin, peel those with skins, cut them in pieces in differents plates with numbers, call few friends for a "blind taste potatoes party" (prepare some bottles of wine and paté too, otherwise I'm not sure they will come) and then try to determinate which ones are the bests.