Soaking potatoes before boiling

lemontart

Nope not heard that one and being of good irish stock I love my tatties.

We boil in skins more often that not so get more of the goodness so my mother tells me (and I am 52)

meritaten

mum made a virtue out of necessity!
if you do have to prepare spuds ahead of time then yes keep them in water and then change the water before cooking them. otherwise they are fine to peel, chuck in pan then boil straightaway!

bluebag

My mum did exactly the same thing, it was to save time as we put the spuds on when we came home from school, there was usually some sort of cold meat and the veg was tinned.

God bless her she didn't have time for anything else, she worked three jobs at the time.

I do it often as the evenings are a bad time for me pain wise, so I try to get as much done while my painkillers are working and I have a little more energy.

daffodiltulip

torbrex wrote: »

It doesn't hurt so I'm just going to continue with soaking them the same as mum did, she did it for over 60 years so she must have had her reasons

I wonder. Some years ago a magazine journalist wrote about how she wondered why she cut the ends of joints for roasting when she was asked by someone. She realised her mum had always done so, so she asked her why she did it. Her mum's mum did it. On to gran. Gran, when married bought the usual household stuff including a roasting tin. Perfect. Until the family grew and so the size of the roasts had to. They no longer fit into the roasting tin, so... she cut off the ends to make them fit!

Fruball

daffodiltulip wrote: »

I wonder. Some years ago a magazine journalist wrote about how she wondered why she cut the ends of joints for roasting when she was asked by someone. She realised her mum had always done so, so she asked her why she did it. Her mum's mum did it. On to gran. Gran, when married bought the usual household stuff including a roasting tin. Perfect. Until the family grew and so the size of the roasts had to. They no longer fit into the roasting tin, so... she cut off the ends to make them fit!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: That is so funny!

Anne_Marie_2

Love that about the roast, brilliant.

A friend and I had a discussion not too long ago about buying large roast joints. I always tend to buy the a fairly large joint, cook it, slice and freeze in portions. Friend buys same size of joint, cuts it into two or 3 pieces, cooks one piece and freezes the rest.
My thoughts are that there will be less shrinkage in cooking the whole joint, rather than two or 3 smaller ones? I may be totally wrong here.

Even if I am wrong...
Less wastage in slicing up the whole joint, as it gets more fiddly to cut up when you get to the end bit, so with 3 joints, although in theory you would still have the same amount of meat, perhaps not so many slices.

Sorry OP...this should have been about potatoes. My Mum always used to peel and leave in water, then rinse, then put in clean water before boiling. Chips were cut and put in bowl of water, rinsed and dried before frying.
I have not made chips for a while, but always do the same. Boiled potatoes, rarely soak, as I have the time, and not working, but I do put them in a pan of water after peeling or cleaning, and then rinse them out and put in fresh water.

meanmarie

I gave up peeling potatoes about 40 years ago and now steam them instead of boiling. Potatoes are a very nutritious vegetable and most of said nutrition is just under the skin.

Marie

Cannyquine

I always understood that the reason potatoes were put in cold water until required was to prevent them turning brown.