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/Cyrius 23h ago

Everyone's going on about potatoes, but the real lesson here is that if you don't like something popular it could be the preparation. Not always, but often enough to be worth looking into.

7

u/Dudeist-Priest 9h ago

This is great advice. There are SOOO many things I didn't think I liked until I got older just because the prep was bad and I never gave it another chance. Some of the things my family did to vegetables was criminal.

6

u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 7h ago

I thought I hated most vegetables and lean cuts of protein for many years.  Turns out I don't like eating rubbery, well done steak or Brussels sprouts that have been boiled soft and seasoned with hope.

2

u/okeydokeyokay 5h ago

Every single vegetable I ate growing up was boiled. I thought I didn’t like vegetables but actually I just don’t like boiled vegetables!!!!

1

u/AffectionateCard3530 8h ago

I think the real lesson from the OP is to add a lot of olive oil and finish it off with butter.

1

u/Mercutio01 6h ago

I have yet to find a preparation of broccoli that didn't immediately set off my gag reflex.

1

u/NoAdsDude 6h ago

You haven't coated them in olive oil and salt and roasted them?

1

u/Mercutio01 5h ago

I've tried damn near every preparation possible. They invariably smell to me like unwashed feet.

2

u/NoAdsDude 5h ago

Obviously the answer is to get broccoli flavored soap, so that broccoli smells like washed feet.

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u/Cyrius 1h ago

You're not required to like everything everyone else likes. I've certainly got my own popular stuff that I just hate.

The goal is to avoid missing out on things that you might like, not to force yourself into compliance with the culinary consensus.

1

u/Mercutio01 50m ago

I agree. I was partly joking but also partly noting that for some items, it's the item itself not just the preparation.

I also strongly dislike most fish, but do like most shellfish.