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Absolute best baked (what some people mistakenly call roast) potatoes I've ever had were in a small restaurant in Cornwall, England. They were almost definitel
by Jedd 2y ago
Absolute best baked (what some people mistakenly call roast) potatoes I've ever had were in a small restaurant in Cornwall, England.
They were almost definitely locally grown, doubtless extremely fresh, and almost definitely an heirloom variety. (And I acknowledge that food always tastes better when you're on holiday.)
We were told the preparation was pretty simple: 'boil in a strong stock until almost fully cooked, then dry and coat in goose fat, and then bake until they look good'.
(Apart from being much faster than conventional baked potatoes, and much much faster & safer than this rosin preparation, there's little risk of getting sick from this method.)
- fanf2 2y agoIn Britain, baked potatoes are oven-cooked whole, skin on, usually without fat; roast potatoes are peeled, cut into large uniform chunks (halved or quartered depending on the size), parboiled, then oven-cooked in lots of fat.
- lbotos 2y agoIf you are American and have never had british style roasted Potatoes… oh boy are you in for a treat.
- jfk13 2y agoThat's how my mother used to do it, but I've found that you don't actually need to use "lots of fat" -- you can get good results with much less (just enough oil or goose fat to cover the bottom of the roasting tray), provided you toss the potatoes in it (pre-heated) when putting them in, and turn them a few times during cooking. The variety of potatoes used is also a critical factor.
- magicalhippo 2y agoWe toss the potatoes on the tray in just enough oil to lightly coat them. Don't boil them, just have them in the pre-heated oven for 30ish minutes. I prefer mealy potatoes, typically almond potatoes[1], but others work fine too. Add some herbs, salt and pepper while tossing. Super easy, hard to mess up and yum yum. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_potato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_potato
- Moru 2y agoWe eat almost only almond potatoes. After eating those, there is nothing else that really cuts it any more. Every time we get back to Sweden and finaly can eat almond potatoes again, it's like "Oh, THIS is how it's supposed to taste". If you don't like potatoes, it's because you haven't had these. Just cook them carefully, they become mashed potatoes very easily. Serve as they are, with a piece of butter. I can eat only potatoes the whole week. Yes, they can be hard to find in southern parts because they are harder to grow in warm climate.
- ObscureScience 2y agoYeah almond potatoes should not be parboiled in my opinion. I prefer to halve them (not smaller/slimmer pieces).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- datavirtue 2y agoBut I don't have any geese.
- Jedd 2y agoHaving geese doesn't imply ownership of geese fat -- having recently had geese might.
- fecal_henge 2y agoYou do own the goose fat, you just havent taken it out of the box yet.
- bostik 2y agoI tend to cheat a little. Parboil until the surface layer is soft, pour into a large colander. Allow to steam off for a while. Toss and turn to get all surfaces properly roughed up, move into a large (steel) bowl. Add 3-4 tablespoons of goose fat, toss and turn again to coat all surfaces. Move to a sufficiently deep (steel) baking tray, sprinkle with salt, add a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary on top, and cook until properly roasted. No need to even turn them around. > The variety of potatoes used is also a critical factor. Bingo. The more "floury", the better.
- d1sxeyes 2y agoAdd a sprinkle of semolina next time
- anjel 2y agoOr set them out to lose some moisture for a few hours prior to roasting. Otherwise they are prone to steaming
- NikkiA 2y agoYou missed the important step after parboiling - you toss the potatoes in the pan used for parboiling, so that the outside gets slightly mashed around the edges; basically just give them all a single smack against the inside of the drained pan.
- MattPalmer1086 2y agoYep, that helps to get them golden and crispy while roasting.
- margalabargala 2y agoAs an American, we have the same names for the same types of potatoes and cooking methods. I have no idea what OP is on about. If I ordered a baked potato in a restaurant and did not receive an entire, whole, skin-on potato, optionally sliced open across the top, I would be shocked and would have a negative opinion of the restaurant. We make roasted potatoes all the time, much like you describe. When we do it at home, we'll frequently use Idaho Gold potatoes that do not need to be peeled, and we'll skip the parboiling step. Plenty of places make this without skipping those steps, and they're delicious, just more labor intensive.
- hammock 2y agoNo potatoes need to be peeled
- margalabargala 2y agoI mean, sure, but there exist some recipes where the inclusion of a thick potato skin is not appropriate, and a russet potato ought be peeled if that is the variety of potato being used. A thin-skinned potato like the idaho gold can sometimes be used in these recipes without peeling. The russet skin would of course not render the dish inedible, but the final result would be much more different than what the recipe was trying to achieve. "Need" here means "required to yield desired final product" not "necessary or else you'll die".
- OJFord 2y agoIt's normal to peel them for roast potatoes, GP is saying in their experience that particular variety is good in that form even unpeeled.
- anon84873628 2y agoThat's similar to Jamie Oliver's "famous" recipe. He also suggests chuffing up the outsides a bit before baking, to create a crispy outer layer.
- germinalphrase 2y agoJ. Kenji Lopez-Alt does it similarly. Alkaline water and a roughing up before roasting.
- riiii 2y agoThat wasn't at The Rising Sun by any chance?
- OJFord 2y agoThe small restaurant in Cornwall, must be yeah.
- thom 2y agoOn the off chance that somebody reading this is planning a culinary tour of Cornwall, Salamander in Mevagissey is also a great spot.
- sourcepluck 2y agoOh no - the poor place will be inundated with the tech-adjacent insisting on their personal definitions of culinary terms. Sounds like it could be the setup for a modern Monty Python sketch, actually
- OJFord 2y ago> Absolute best baked (what some people mistakenly call roast) potatoes I've ever had were in a small restaurant in Cornwall, England. > [...] > We were told the preparation was pretty simple: 'boil in a strong stock until almost fully cooked, then dry and coat in goose fat, and then bake until they look good'. You had roast potatoes. I won't tell you how to make Buffalo wings or Chicago pizza.
- Jedd 2y agoThanks - I can't imagine ever wanting to eat, let alone cook, a Chicago style 'pizza'.
- OJFord 2y agoEnjoy your Chicago style pizza - I've decided that the words you used mean that you love the thing and have decided to eat lots of it.
- Jedd 2y agoWhat I meant was that I find the Chicago style way too thick, heavy, cheesy, slow to cook. It feels like a manifestation of the country's preference for heavy-handedness and excess. This may be an ungracious take. In any case it looks closer to a pie or lasagna style dish than what most people would consider a pizza. I gather it partly gets its name from the cooking tin that's used, which brings us back to an earlier problem. Anyway, I naturally lean more towards the Napoli style food as being proper pizza - and I'm sure we can all agree on that being a more faithful, accurate, just generally better interpretation. A modest volume of high quality toppings, on a thin base that's enjoyed a slow-ferment (I invariably do poolish), enough proper / good cheese to taste but not so much as to clog up, and the whole thing is cooked fast. IIRC, Napoli definition requires less than 90s to cook, but I struggle with getting to, maintaining, and then handling the necessary temperatures (around 450 degrees) so I usually end up cooking around 370 degrees for closer to 2.5 minutes.
- OJFord 2y ago
- jimnotgym 2y agoI don't think we are mistaken to call the potatoes we put in the roasting tin with our roasting meat for a classic Sunday roast....roast potatoes. Baked potatoes are baked skin-on whole in the oven. I don't think 'mistakenly' is the word you were looking for. Otherwise we can start on a 'who invented English anyway' thread of food naming. + crisps that some people mistakenly call chips + chips that some people mistakenly call fries + biscuits that some people mistakenly call cookies Etc
- fakedang 2y ago"some people"
- portaouflop 2y agoMostly people living in a troubled, oil-rich former British colony with a history of political violence.
- fecal_henge 2y agoNigeria?
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoI thought the above was a joke but literally what else fits? The british empire never held most of what we know to be oil-rich now.
- portaouflop 2y agoIt’s the United States dummy
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoThe oil-rich parts were never a british colony.
- jimnotgym 2y agoBtw I never knew a restaurant in Britain use locally grown heirloom varieties of anything without making a big deal about it. Although I suppose in American terms all produce grown in Britain is fairly local. Potato growing tends to be quite regional. 'New potatoes', the thin skinned spring type, usually eaten boiled with the skin on, come first from Jersey (Jersey Royals). Then Cornwall, but more commonly Pembrokeshire (just over the Bristol Channel from Cornwall). The thick skinned general purpose types come later from places with deep stone free soils. I think more of Lincolnshire, although they are grown in pockets all over. I like the ones from the localised sandy soils in mid Shropshire, but I grew up on them so I'm probably biased. Those are the ones I would roast.
- ifwinterco 2y agoYou are definitely describing roast potatoes Most likely they were maris pipers (actually a post war invention), maybe king edwards
- sourcepluck 2y agoI think other responders have suitably highlighted how you did in fact have roast potatoes, but what I'd like to know is how you became so convinced you had baked potatoes in the first place? Could you describe for us what you think roast potatoes and baked potatoes are?
- Jedd 2y agoCheck my (much larger) reply elsewhere in this thread - though the tl;dr is that roasting involves flame / fire / maybe coals, baking does not.
- OJFord 2y agoHope you enjoy your next Sunday bake - will it be baked chicken or baked lamb or perhaps baked pork or baked beef?
- sourcepluck 2y agoWho doesn't love getting baked on Sundays, I ask?
- OJFord 2y agoI suppose a summer highlight is the outdoor roast sausages and roast burgers too. Rest of the year we can only really roast stir-frys, roti, and crème brûlée.
- switch007 2y agoBoil in stock? That's genius. Not sure why I haven't thought of that.
- AndrewVos 2y agoWhich restaurant was this? I live in Cornwall so want to check it out!
- Jedd 2y agoAlas my record keeping back in 2011 was not so good -- I'm quietly confident it would have been in St Mawes, but, as noted, 13+ years back so it's doubtful that the restaurant, chef, or menu remains.