Stab potatoes before baking them?

[Addie]

My mashed potatoes are always made with skins on. I also don't do a silky-smooth mash. I like some texture.

CD

Even when I make mashed taters, I leave some lumps in them. It just seems like more fun to eat them that way.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

The flavor is in the skin! If you scoop the potato without the skin you are eating pure potato starch.

Nutritionally that is equivalent to eating pure sugar except most sugar is a mixture of glucose and sucrose IIRC.

They all still get metabolized in your stomach and go directly into your blood stream, and end up flooding your blood with sugar. Your pancreas releases insulin if it can, which sends a signal to your cells to convert the sugar flood into fat and store it in your cells.

This is why it is bad to eat large amounts of starches including sugar. They turn directly into fat to be stored in your body's cells.

 

[Cheryl J]

My fave way:

Preheat oven to 400F. Stab scrubbed potato once or twice. Bake for an hour. When cool enough to handle but still hot, slice lengthwise halfway through, pinch ends together to puff up the 'tater and loosen it up.

Add butter, salt, and pepper. Smoosh it in with a fork. Add a dollop of sour cream, and a sprinkling of chopped chives or scallions. Eat and enjoy.

 

[Addie]

My fave way:

Preheat oven to 400F. Stab scrubbed potato once or twice. Bake for an hour. When cool enough to handle but still hot, slice lengthwise halfway through, pinch ends together to puff up the 'tater and loosen it up.

Add butter, salt, and pepper. Smoosh it in with a fork. Add a dollop of sour cream, and a sprinkling of chopped chives or scallions. Eat and enjoy.

I like sour cream as a chip dip, as a salad dressing and a lot of other ways. But for some unknown reason to me, not on a baked tater.

Sometimes if I didn't use up the whole container of sour cream, I would use it up in mashed taters. Kids loved it!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

That's pretty traditional Cheryl but there is a reason why tradition is good.

I had wished I had sour cream and chives (or green onions) tonight for dinner but alas I had neither.

You mentioned an important procedure: I agree that it is important to scrub your potatoes before cooking. Not only did they grow in the ground (and who knows where or what hygiene the field workers were subject too, but the idea that other shoppers also handled them--no way would I eat a potato that I didn't scrub.

I have a fondness for green onions yet I consider them one of the highest risk vegetables I eat, and worse, they are usually served raw! Tell me the truth, did you ever accidentally drop a bunch of green onions on the floor while you were seeking a better bunch? I bet you did exactly what I've done: pick it up and put it back. Even if you don't do this, the next produce department employee who passes by will do the same. Ech!

I always scrub my potatoes. I use the same Dobie pad I wash my dishes with, except without soap.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I like sour cream as a chip dip, as a salad dressing and a lot of other ways. But for some unknown reason to me, not on a baked tater.

Sometimes if I didn't use up the whole container of sour cream, I would use it up in mashed taters. Kids loved it!

Oh yeah! Sour cream is almost de rigueur in twice baked potatoes. IMO your only alternative is pure cream.

But it is a tradition to serve baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, in US restaurants everywhere (in US).

Going for the twice baked, you will of course use some type of cheese too!

 

[Cheryl J]

That's pretty traditional Cheryl but there is a reason why tradition is good.

I had wished I had sour cream and chives (or green onions) tonight for dinner but alas I had neither.

You mentioned an important procedure: I agree that it is important to scrub your potatoes before cooking. Not only did they grow in the ground (and who knows where or what hygiene the field workers were subject too, but the idea that other shoppers also handled them--no way would I eat a potato that I didn't scrub.

I have a fondness for green onions yet I consider them one of the highest risk vegetables I eat, and worse, they are usually served raw! Tell me the truth, did you ever accidentally drop a bunch of green onions on the floor while you were seeking a better bunch? I bet you did exactly what I've done: pick it up and put it back. Even if you don't do this, the next produce department employee who passes by will do the same. Ech!

I always scrub my potatoes. I use the same Dobie pad I wash my dishes with, except without soap.

Thanks for the cleanliness lesson Greg, but I'm not sure where you're going with all this. I thought we were just talking about baked potatoes, whether to poke them or not, and other alternatives.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Cheryl, I was agreeing with you. This is a forum. We write posts. Topics drift.

I gather you were offended by my post. Sorry.

When I start a topic I'm always enthusiastic to see it evolve and mutate into new interesting subjects. As the OP I am not interested in requiring responses to be relevant to my OP. I like topics that go wherever they want to go.

 

[Cheryl J]

No harm, no foul. My apologies, Greg. Sometimes I get caught up in the simplicity of the original question/post and post accordingly. Take care.

 

[caseydog]

I'm pretty sure poking holes is required only when nuking.

I should have taken a picture of the carnage. I know I didn't imagine it. And, what have you got to lose by poking a few holes in your potato before you bake it?

I hope it never happens to you, but I will be saying "I told you so." if it does.

CD

 

[CakePoet]

I hate the flavour of the skin, it isnt pleasant . How ever I use my potatoes after flavour, yes the stuff inside can have a flavour . My favourite is a very buttery , slightly sweet potatoe.

 

[rodentraiser]

I've done it both ways and still living an explosion free life.

I'm pretty sure poking holes is required only when nuking.

HA! I used to stab my potatoes to the point of death and I still had one explode in the oven. Now I kill the suckers and I make sure that fork goes in deep. Trust me, you'll only clean an oven out once when a potato explodes, and after that you will stab them. All the time.

As to the skins, I would eat potato skins along with the potatoes, but I have yet to find a store that sells potatoes that don't have huge black spots in them. When I shop at Safeway, for instance, if I need 3 large potatoes I get 4, because I know I'll be throwing out at least the amount of 1 potato after I'm through cutting off all the black ends and spots. I was amazed once in a cooking video where the cook peeled a potato and it was totally unblemished after peeling. I've never seen potatoes like that.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Yes, I stab my potatoes...in the back and then I talk about them.

 

[rodentraiser]

I suppose I should add that once I have the potatoes baked and the insides taken out, I deep fat fry the skins, then fill them with bacon and cheese or hamburger and cheese, and maybe some sour cream, onions, etc. Then I eat the skins.

 

[tenspeed]

I remember that my mother would coat the potatoes with Crisco shortening before baking, and the skins would come out rather crispy. No idea what time or temperature, and I've never done them that way.

I've done them in the slow cooker, wrapped in foil. They come out noticeably different than conventional baking. Wife prefers conventional baked, so it wasn't a repeat.

 

[Rocklobster]

We wrap and bake 28 potatoes a day at work..we don't stab them..never had a problem...not saying it can't happen, so better safe than sorry, I guess. We just don't have the time...

 

[Andy M.]

Yes, I stab my potatoes...in the back and then I talk about them.

LIKE (couldn't find a button that said that)

 

[Just Cooking]

Yes, I stab my potatoes...in the back and then I talk about them.

Mr. Potato Head complained about you on Facebook...

 

[Addie]

Yes, I stab my potatoes...in the back and then I talk about them.

Thank you. You made my day.

And you can talk about me all you want to. Because when you are talking about me, you are leaving someone else alone.

 

[RPCookin]

I prick them a half dozen times with a fork. I'll bake anywhere from 350° F to 450° F, depending on whether I'm cooking them along with something else or alone. Never nuke them unless I'm reheating one that was left over from a previous meal.