King Edward Potatoes

yangptangkipperbang

chesky wrote: »

I always used to buy King Edwards but in the last five years or so I've found that they literally fall to pieces when you boil them, even if you do it on a very low heat. A friend who used to be a farmer tells me that they're no longer stored properly and that's the problem.

No wonder your friend USED to be a farmer......he's talking out of his *!^"%.
King Edwards are not boiling potatoes - they are the best potato, by far, for roasting.

TravellingAbuela

My favourite potatoes are Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Vivaldi variety. No boiling away in the water if using for mashing and also make lovely roasties and jackets as the insides are really creamy. Dearer than the average spud but well worth it in my opinion.

chesky

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

No wonder your friend USED to be a farmer......he's talking out of his *!^"%.
King Edwards are not boiling potatoes - they are the best potato, by far, for roasting.

Charming - how polite.

King Edwards WERE always used for roasting, boiling and mashing. In fact my granny would never use any other kind when I was a child and was extremely disdainful about 'whites' or other inferior varieties. It seems only nowadays that they can't be boiled beyond two minutes.

malebolge

chesky wrote: »

Charming - how polite.

King Edwards WERE always used for roasting, boiling and mashing. In fact my granny would never use any other kind when I was a child and was extremely disdainful about 'whites' or other inferior varieties. It seems only nowadays that they can't be boiled beyond two minutes.

You're right - King Edwards used to be the 'the' potato to use. There's now other, and some would argue better, varieties.
I've been growing my own potatoes a few years now and asked advice off people who had been growing for years. I was told a few interesting things: the main thing is that it's not just the variety, it's the growing conditions that matter because they affect the water ratio in the tuber. Then there's storage - just like your farmer friend said. This too affects the ratio, as does the tuber size.
I wonder if commercial pressures from supermarkets have affected the quality?