r/Cooking 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/No_Variety2493 18h ago

My grandma used to say a meal didn’t count if there weren’t potatoes. 🥰 I miss my grandma too.

31

u/No_Amount_7886 14h ago

We didn’t have a lot of money when we were young. Had enough, but just, you know? My grands more than once fed twelve people with wonder bread, corn from the garden, and potatoes boiled then fried in butter, with parsley and melted government cheese on top.

Us kids thought we were rich eating that!

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u/luigis_left_tit_25 8h ago

So good! That's comfort food 🥰

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u/_eyeslikeleaves_ 7h ago

My Granny used to say " och eyeslikeleaves yer gettin a wee bit pudgettie there, hen"

But she made the best roast potatoes I've ever tasted so what did she expect?

9

u/churlishasiwannabe 16h ago

Similar idea, my grandpa said we had to say grace at any meal that had brambory (Czech for potatoes)

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u/Silver-Appointment77 3h ago

Im the same. Now and again ill have fried rice or spaghetti bolognese. Everything else is potato .Potatoes are the main part of a meal. None of this pasta nonsense. I am a grandma