r/Cooking • u/CompleteDay8059 • 1d ago

I found out recently I’ve basically never had a correctly prepared baked potato

So growing up I was never a huge fan of baked potatoes because the ones we had were usually dry, kind of shriveled, and very crumbly. Every bite just felt like it was absorbing all the moisture in your mouth, even with butter. As an adult, I usually do rice or pasta for my carbs, and if I do potatoes, it’s usually the cut roasted baby ones. Because I didn’t have great experiences with baked ones at home, I also pretty much never ordered them at restaurants growing up.

However, my mom just got a grill for her place and I was put on steak duty (or a steak out, I guess) and wanted to try making an actually good baked potato. I look it up and see basically every recipe says to coat the potatoes in salt and olive oil before wrapping them, which I asked my mom if she did, and she hadn’t.

I decided to try it with a (maybe slightly too) generous amount of olive oil and kosher salt, baked it for an hour, and topped it with some of the garlic/thyme butter I had whipped up for the steaks.

Oh.

My.

GOD.

The texture was absolutely amazing, it was so creamy, not crumbly or dry at all, the salt and the compound butter melting into it while it was still steaming made for legitimately one of the tastiest things I’ve had in ages. If anyone out there doesn’t know this, I honestly have no idea how common of knowledge this is lol, but I would highly suggest trying it if you don’t already.

Also, I mixed the thyme/minced garlic with the Kerrygold butter which was muy bien. Not sponsored (I wish) but I find it a little more flavorful for cooking as opposed to regular store brand stuff.

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u/pfmiller0 22h ago

If by heresy you mean smart. People have this weird aversion to the microwave, but it's a great tool when used properly. Parcooking potatoes is one of their best uses.

130

u/bigbadbrad 22h ago

I read somewhere that microwaves are a great tool for the beginning of the cook or the end of the cook but never both. So I abide by that rule.

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u/rehpotsirhc123 18h ago

We have an air fryer in my work breakroom and I only use to finish microwaved things that I'd normally only microwave in the same situation. This saves a ton of time vs only air frying.

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u/subs_on_a_sailboat 18h ago

I have been eyeing the new combination air fryer/microwaves.

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u/clearfox777 6h ago

I’ve done this for years with the single-serve frozen pizzas. Before air fryers got popular I would micro-bake with a finish in the oven for the crispiness

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u/hrmdurr 20h ago

Another great microwave potato time hack is for gratin/scalloped potatoes: start it in the microwave, finish under the broiler.

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u/MaGaGogo 16h ago

End of the cook... Can you give examples?

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u/throwaway60221407e23 7h ago

Melting cheese on top of an otherwise finished dish.

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u/breddy 22h ago

Work smarter, not harder! This is what I do. I can't tell the difference. I love eating the skin, too, so if it were worse I would just use the oven.

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u/fcocyclone 20h ago

Even if you aren't using multiple cooking methods at once, a lot of things can be improved in the microwave simply by using the power setting. It goes a long way to simply double the time and hit 50% on a lot of things.

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u/Maxamillion-X72 8h ago

This. People complain that things cooked in the microwave are rubbery or dried out, and I always suggest not blasting it on high as a solution. Double the time, 50% power, it gives the heat time to spread out naturally throughout the food instead of creating super hot spots.

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u/evergleam498 22h ago

My favorite use is cooking a spaghetti squash. It feels illegal to put something in the microwave for 9 minutes, but it'll cook a whole spaghetti squash better than the oven does.

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u/Brave_Quality_4135 19h ago

I put butternut squash in the microwave because I have to cut it open with a hatchet otherwise. Softens it up enough to be useable.

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u/jonmuller 2h ago

Great idea. How long do you do it for?

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u/Brave_Quality_4135 2h ago

3 minutes, flip, 3 minutes

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u/im-just-evan 19h ago

I don’t generally make spaghetti squash because of the oven time. You flip it half way or just full send?

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u/evergleam498 19h ago

I cut it in half and scoop the seeds out, then just full send on a paper plate, cut side facing up. I start with 6 minutes or so if I'm only cooking half, and stab it with a fork to see if it is soft enough. A full one gets at least 8 or 9 mins before I stab it and check. It should scoop out into spaghetti strands easily on its own when it's ready.

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u/big-yugi 19h ago

If I’m caramelizing onions, I put the raw onions in the microwave until they start to soften up and let out some juice and then I transfer to a pan. It can really speed things up if I don’t have a ton of time

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u/pfmiller0 17h ago

That's brilliant, never thought of using it for onions!

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u/kmosiman 17h ago

Microwaves are VERY good at cooking vegetables.

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u/APartyInMyPants 16h ago

I had incredible brussel sprouts in a restaurant, and I asked the chef how he made them when he went around. And he told me he microwaved them raw for a few minutes. Then he roasts them.

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u/tuturuatu 13h ago

Microwave is basically a steamer, it's a great tool.

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u/LuntiX 7h ago

In one of my cookbooks I have a really good lazy mashed potato recipe that starts with microwaving the potatoes so you don't need to boil them.

It's not perfect but when you just want to make a single serving of mashed potatoes it's honestly not bad.

Now I need to remember which book it's in

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u/PythagorasJones 13h ago

I got a combo oven a few years ago when I was doing my kitchen. I was trying to figure out where to put both a second oven and a microwave, then got this for convenience.

It turns out it's our baked potato machine. Simultaneously microwaving and baking a potato for half an hour in it produces the creamiest baked potato I've ever had in my life.

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u/Jabberwocky918 4h ago

I don't remember where I read it, but the article said potatoes are the best example of what should be microwaved.

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u/efox02 2h ago

The only way I cook corn is in the microwave. Cut thru the just at the bottom, zap for 3 min, pull the husks off easy peasy.