Best way to store potatoes?

[kitchengoddess8]

I just bought a bag of assorted small potatoes including red bliss and purple. Is it best to refrigerate them or not? They were packaged in a mesh bag.


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[GotGarlic]

I just bought a bag of assorted small potatoes including red bliss and purple. Is it best to refrigerate them or not? They were packaged in a mesh bag.

Store them in a cool, dark place, but not the refrigerator; temps that cold cause the starch to turn to sugar. Exposure to the sun will cause them to start sprouting and turning green. Also, don't store them near onions; onions emit gases that speed the sprouting of potatoes.

 

[Dawgluver]

Sounds like someone went to Costco! Don't store them in the fridge, it makes them sweet and yucky. A cool dark place out of direct sun is good. I keep mine on the kitchen counter.

(Appears we were posting at the same time, GG!)

 

[kitchengoddess8]

Thanks GotGarlic and Dawgluver! Actually I got them from Whole Foods. Do you think it would be okay to store them in the pantry closet?


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[Dawgluver]

Pantry closet would work.

 

[kitchengoddess8]

Pantry closet would work.

Great! I think there would be too much sunlight on the kitchen counter so the pantry closet is where they'll go. What is the typical shelf life for potatoes?


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[GotGarlic]

They can last for several weeks. I have two basket-drawers built in to my kitchen peninsula; I keep bread products in one and potatoes in the other.

If you put them in some sort of closed container, you can keep them on the counter, but a closet works fine, too.

 

[RPCookin]

Great! I think there would be too much sunlight on the kitchen counter so the pantry closet is where they'll go. What is the typical shelf life for potatoes?


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They can last for several weeks. I have two basket-drawers built in to my kitchen peninsula; I keep bread products in one and potatoes in the other.

If you put them in some sort of closed container, you can keep them on the counter, but a closet works fine, too.

Even after they start to sprout from the eyes, I break off the sprouts and the potato is still good as long as it hasn't been growing for too long, or gotten soft.

We store potatoes, onions, and garlic in baskets on the otherwise useless 18 inches of counter between the fridge and the wall. The potato basket is covered, but the onion and garlic baskets are open. All were bought from a friend in the Bahamas who makes and sells baskets made from palm leaves and native grasses, and were intended from the start to be functional kitchen accessories, not decorative art.

 

[blissful]

Growing up, with a basement and basement pantry. We had a potato bin in the very cool basement pantry. There was a small window cracked open in the winter to let in the cold air. The pantry was cooler than the rest of the basement. Hundreds of pounds of potatoes were put in the bin in the fall. For most meals we had to go down to the bin and bring up enough for 6 people. Nearly every day.

 

[kitchengoddess8]

So should onions be stored out of the fridge as well? I have one in the fridge now.


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[Dawgluver]

Some may disagree, but I keep my onions and garlic in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. They still retain their flavor.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I keep my regular yellow onions in the basement, in the same general area as my potatoes but not in the same bin. However, the "sweet" onions like Vidalia, OSO Sweet, red onions, and such are kept in the veggie drawer in the fridge. Garlic is in a basket near the cooking area. I go through it quickly enough that I don't really have to worry about storage.

BTW, does anyone have a spare four cloves they can pass to me? I thought I had enough fresh for cooking this week, but nope. Granulated to the rescue!

 

[di reston]

Before I retired, I was a professional free-lance registered specialist interpreter and a member of the Institute of Linguists, professional. I used to do work for an importer of potatoes which, ultimately, were destinated for crisping. They kept massive sack containers of potatoes in a controlled environment of no more than 15° Centigrade and in a controlled lighted system of ultra-violet. Having learned from that, I now always keep my spuds in the semi- dark and in a very cool but not lower than 10° C environment, on their own without contact with any other item or vegetable. It works like a dream, and it's easy. I found a cool place, well aired, put a slatted cupboard in to control the light, (I used pallets) and my spuds are always ok. The temperature must be constant as well as the level of light (very little) and the humidity also. My spuds are in the cellar. Ideal. Don't put them in the fridge. A cool hidey-hole is better.

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

 

[GotGarlic]

I have never put onions, garlic or potatoes in the fridge.

 

[RPCookin]

I have never put onions, garlic or potatoes in the fridge.

Nope, me either. If I only use part of an onion, then I put the left over portion in the fridge, but whole onions don't need refrigeration.

 

[GotGarlic]

Nope, me either. If I only use part of an onion, then I put the left over portion in the fridge, but whole onions don't need refrigeration.

Right. I do refrigerate parts of onions. And when onions and garlic sprout, I plant them in the garden

 

[GotGarlic]

BTW, does anyone have a spare four cloves they can pass to me? I thought I had enough fresh for cooking this week, but nope. Granulated to the rescue!

I do, but I can't reeeeeeeeach!