Tip - Picking The Perfect Potato To Mash Bake Or Boil

Picking the Perfect Potato to Mash, Bake, or Boil

by Alan Tangren


Russets (high starch) are the consummate Idaho "bakers." They're ideal for 
making potato pancakes, french fries, shoestring potatoes, and heavenly 
mashed potatoes.

When I was growing up on my grandfather's farm, deciding what type of 
potato to use was easy. He grew russets in his big vegetable garden, and 
that was what we used--no matter what we were making.

Today the choice isn't so easy. There's a huge variety of potatoes to pick 
from: white, yellow, red, brown, or purple; tiny as marbles or weighing up 
to a pound; oval, perfectly round, or long and narrow. But don't choose a 
potato for its color, shape, or size alone; the most important criterion 
for selecting a potato is its starch content.

Starch Determines a Potato's Purpose

Purple potatoes (medium starch) have always been used in the Peruvian 
Andes, the ancestral home of most modern potatoes. They're good steamed, 
and they make delicious potato salad, too. Or turn them into a 
smooth-textured purple purée.

Knowing the starch level of a potato can help you choose one that will bake 
up fluffy and light or hold its shape in a salad.

High-starch potatoes have a light, mealy texture. They're best for baking, 
mashing, and french-frying. According to food scientist Harold McGee, the 
cells of a high-starch potato separate when cooked. That means fluffy baked 
potatoes and mashed potatoes that readily soak up milk and butter and hold 
plenty of air when whipped. But high-starch potatoes also absorb water, so 
they fall apart when boiled, making them not much good for salads.

Medium-starch potatoes are called all-purpose potatoes. They're moister 
than high-starch potatoes and hold their shape a bit better. I like them 
best roasted or made into gratins. They're superb when cut into chunks, 
seasoned with olive oil and garlic, wrapped in foil, and roasted in the 
oven or in the ashes of a low fire.

Ruby crescents (low starch) are among the many slender fingerling types. 
They have reddish-brown skin and fine-textured white flesh that holds its 
shape well--perfect for potato salads. Other fingerling varieties to look 
for are Russian Banana, Butterfinger, and Rose Finn Apple, with its 
rose-pink skin and yellow flesh that's blushed with red.

Low-starch potatoes are best for salads. Often called waxy potatoes, these 
have a more cohesive cell structure and hold their shape better than other 
types of potato.

New Potatoes Really are New

Red potatoes (medium to low starch) hold their shape when boiled and 
sliced. Steam and butter them or use them in potato salads. These are 
especially attractive and delicious when "new." Leave the tender skins on 
to contrast with their white interior, or peel off a spiral band of skin 
before cooking. Larger, more mature red potatoes tend to have a slightly 
higher starch content.

The term "new" refers to freshly harvested, immature potatoes of any 
variety. Look for them in late spring or early summer, at the very 
beginning of the potato harvest. They have thinner skins and slightly 
moister flesh than more mature potatoes. Choose hard ones with almost 
translucent skins. New potatoes are very perishable; use them within a few 
days of purchase. New potatoes of any variety are delicious steamed or 
boiled, mixed in salads, or roasted in foil.

Yellow Finns (medium starch) have the best flavor of the all-purpose 
potatoes. These golden-yellow, creamy-textured potatoes are great for 
gratins or roasting, and they combine beautifully with russets to make 
mashed potatoes or with roasted garlic as a filling for ravioli.

"Creamer" is a term used to describe any potato less than an inch in 
diameter. The designation refers only to size. Creamers may be new potatoes 
or fully mature small ones.

Regardless of variety, all potatoes should feel heavy and firm, never soft, 
wrinkled, or blemished. And try not to buy potatoes in plastic bags since 
it's hard to evaluate them.

Yukon Golds (medium to low starch) are similar to Yellow Finns in shape and 
color, but they're slightly waxier and better for steaming or boiling. 
They're not the best for gratins or salads because they tend to fall apart 
if even slightly overcooked.

Store potatoes away from light in a place that's cool (but not cold) and 
dry. New potatoes can be refrigerated for a few days, but any potato that's 
stored too long at such a low temperature will take on an unpleasant 
sweetness as the starch converts to sugar.

Refuse to buy potatoes that show even a hint of green. They've been 
"lightstruck." The green indicates the presence of solanine, which is 
produced when potatoes are exposed to light, either in the field or after 
harvest. This mildly poisonous alkaloid has a bitter flavor that can cause 
an upset stomach. If your potatoes turn green after you get them home, peel 
off all traces of the colored flesh before cooking.

Cook Potatoes with their Skins Intact

Potatoes cooked in their skins will be more flavorful, hold their shape 
better, and absorb less water. Also, the skins come off much easier once 
the potatoes have been cooked.

White potatoes (medium starch) may be round or oval (called long white 
potatoes). Both are ideal all-purpose varieties. They're perfect for 
gratins. Try boiling them just until tender and then cut them into chunks 
and roast them in a hot oven for tender- fleshed potatoes with irresistibly 
crisp skins.

If you must peel potatoes before they're cooked (when making a gratin, for 
example), put the peeled potatoes in a bowl of water with a bit of lemon 
juice or vinegar to prevent them from turning brown. But remember that 
they'll absorb water, so don't leave them there too long.


--Alan Trangren forages at farms and markets throughout northern California 
to fill the larders at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.