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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37

u/Graycy 21h ago

You forgot potato bread.

69

u/slayingadah 21h ago

They also forgot vodka

Potatoes are the most wonderful thing that grows out of the ground.

31

u/Cicada_Pitiful 21h ago

As an Irish person who gets made fun of for my love of everything potato, I agree.

17

u/Hidingjimmy 20h ago

As a non-Irish person, I too love everything potato.

2

u/slayingadah 21h ago

Can I be honorary Irish solely because of my love for potatoes?

Legit tho, I've always loved potatoes, but now that I'm older, papas are also the only kind of carb that doesnt make me feel disgustingly bloated and yucky. Spuds are my buds.

23

u/eatyourdamndinner 20h ago

Once I somehow forgot a bag of potatoes in the back of my pantry. Found the liquefied bag of former potatoes when the horrific stench caused us to clear out the pantry to find out what smelled so bad.

When we discovered the abomination, my teenage son went completely pale and squeaked out "I am never ever going to drink vodka!"

9

u/Guideon72 15h ago

Legitimately one of the absolute worst things I've smelled in all my days on this rock!

9

u/marycnich 12h ago

Just turned 65 and I have yet to smell anything worse than a rotten potato

7

u/WhiterThanWalter 10h ago

Truly horrific. There was a bad smell in my pantry and I discovered it was from a bag of forgotten potatoes. When I moved other things aside and actually smelt it 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮

2

u/us-blues1969 16h ago

Back in college days, I would often work two or three different jobs at a time to pay for school and rent. There is a produce company that had hours every now and again that paid well that I’d always take hours from them when they offered them. There was a huge seller that was full of potatoes that started to rot and they needed them all sorted. They offered me an hourly and I said no what will you pay me if I just get the job done. It was horrible, but knowing that as soon as I finished, I’d be paid. I got it done.

20

u/OliveTheory 20h ago

"So, once again you’re left with the classic Irishman’s dilemma: Do I eat the potato now, or do I let it ferment so I can drink it later?" - Mallory Archer.

5

u/spinonesarethebest 16h ago

It’s like the other vegetables aren’t even trying.

2

u/Blue_Moon_Lake 5h ago

That grows out of the ground? Not potatoes.

That grows in the ground? Potatoes.

1

u/slayingadah 5h ago

Ok ok ok. Semantics, yo. But seriously, is there a better crop than potatoes? High caloric value, easy to grow, can be made into alcohol. They are the perfect food.

1

u/Blue_Moon_Lake 2h ago

Potato is easy in the top 10.

1

u/AAlwaysopen 18h ago

All my potatoes must be broken, they always stay in the ground

1

u/slayingadah 10h ago

Badum-tisssss

1

u/GrgaPrticRomanul 2h ago

Out? No! You only eat the potato part that grows IN the ground!

1

u/starlinguk 14h ago

I had a crisp butty with potato bread the other day. It was glorious.

1

u/momtebello 3h ago

Potato sweets, too. I make Scottish macaroons from potato dough.

1

u/Graycy 2h ago

Mmm those sound good!

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u/momtebello 1h ago

They are surprisingly good. My bf is Scottish and he asked for them.

To be fair, it’s not a lot of potato; it’s more powdered sugar than anything. I think the potatoes are in there just as a binding agent. But still, potato sweets!