The Trouble with Lunch Time Jacket Potatoes!

GreenSaints

Hi All,

As it's getting cold and I'm bored of soup - the next best thing is a jacket potato when I'm at work.

However, I am a purist, and think they should only be cooked in the oven.

So how do I re-heat my jacket in the microwave at work without it going all soggy and horrible?!

Any tips/advice will be greatly appreciated

Rummer

No idea I'm afraid, we don't own a microwave however I agree whole heartedly that they should be cooked in the oven and in fact we have just polished off baked potatoes smothered in butter and mature cheddar, yum!

Mrs_Chip

If anyone knows, can they tell me!

I have always juat treated micro potatoes as another type of thing entirely from a proper baked spud - there is no comparison, no point trying :rotfl:.

rinabean

I've never found them to go soggy when reheating in the microwave. You are rubbing oil into the skin, right? That's how to make microwave food crispy.

I've also not found any negative effect from cooking the potatoes halfway in the microwave and then into the oven for half the time you would have cooked them there.

GreenSaints

rinabean wrote: »

I've never found them to go soggy when reheating in the microwave. You are rubbing oil into the skin, right? That's how to make microwave food crispy.

I've also not found any negative effect from cooking the potatoes halfway in the microwave and then into the oven for half the time you would have cooked them there.

When I cook then in the oven, I get some tinfoil - spray it with fry light, put some salt in and wrap them.

I'll have a go with the oil on the potato in the microwave and let you know my results tomorrow after lunch

lizzyb1812

I think rinabean's suggestion that you only reheat a cooked jacket potato in the microwave is good. Microwaves heat the food molecules. They don't heat the air that then cooks the food like an oven does. So as Mrs Chip says oven and micro jackets are 2 different things and I don't think rubbing oil on a raw potato then microwaving it will produce an oven type jacket. Sorry

meritaten

Does it HAVE to be jacket potatoes? my son in law takes in to work - Stew, spag bol, even roast dinners! (the others complain if he takes in curry - otherwise he would!) virtually any leftovers from the day before, he takes in to work and reheats in the 'ding'!

GreenSaints

meritaten wrote: »

Does it HAVE to be jacket potatoes? my son in law takes in to work - Stew, spag bol, even roast dinners! (the others complain if he takes in curry - otherwise he would!) virtually any leftovers from the day before, he takes in to work and reheats in the 'ding'!

It doesn't have to be, but as there is only me and my BF we don't have leftovers. If we do, he (affectionately called 'The Human Dustbin') will eat for 'supper'

I am really fussy with my food though. When I find something I like I can eat it forever until I get bored one day!

GreenSaints

Well, thanks to someone clever at work they managed to get the oven to work! All for little old me and my potato! :rotfl:

I will now have to bring a supply of tin foil, oil and salt!

I mentioned to someone if they wanted to start a 'potato club' You know, everyone chips in 30p to a bag of potatoes and we cook them together! Or, I could cook a load myself and sell them and undercut the shops in town! :rotfl:

ubamother

I remember a tip from Nigel Slater, that instead of cutting hot baked potatoes open, cover them with a cloth and give them one sharp blow with the side of a closed fist - this splits the skin and shoots the steam out so the insides are dryer and fluffier. You do however, a. end up with a odd-shaped baked potato and b. get strange looks doing this at work, but as a technique it works amazingly well. No hope for a crispy skin though - sorry. I have found that pre-cooked potato based dishes like boulangere, dauphinois or pan haggerty all with sliced potato cope well with being reheated in a microwave - or in the oven now you have use of one.

Mrs_Chip

I hanker for the jacket spuds of my childhood. Mum worked on a farm and brought home all the spuds too big for the bags - they were like carpet slippers! And they had mud on them. After a cursory wipe they were baked (no oil or salt). The skins went totally crispy and had the most delicious flavour, rarely replicated these days. I actually prefer the skins, and cook more potatoes than needed. I scoop out the middles for use in other things and eat the skins with a dab of butter and a good grind of black pepper. On my list of 10 best things ever to eat!

I am afraid the micro-spud is but a pale imitation, so glad you got the oven fixed!