The French Method for Show-Stopping Roasted Potatoes (2024)

FAQs

Why do you soak potatoes before roasting? ›

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

Give them a cold water bath: Once your potatoes are chopped, toss them into a large bowl. Then cover the potatoes completely with cold water and let them soak for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight). This will help to rinse off the excess starch and help the potatoes crisp up beautifully in the oven.

It's a recipe for the tastiest roast potatoes. So for these, you're going to need to peel. Peeling allows the potatoes to fluff up around the edges as they boil, and these are the bits that form the super crispy exterior of the roast potatoes (and we all know that's the best bit).

A: First let's talk about why cut potatoes need to be immersed in water to begin with. The reason is to prevent the potatoes exposure to air, which causes dehydration, oxidation, and discoloration. Immersing cut potatoes will also help rinse off excess starch.

"Placing [peeled and cut] potatoes in water helps prevent oxidation, which turns their exposed flesh brown," says Ronna Welsh, the author of The Nimble Cook and the owner and chef instructor at Purple Kale Kitchenworks in Brooklyn, N.Y. While oxidation won't make the potatoes unsafe to eat, it does change their flavor.

You've been cooking roast potatoes all wrong… you should salt them AFTER they've been in the oven for a 'glass-like crunch', chef reveals.

First things first, it's important to not overcrowd the tray, with Curtis saying: “you can't put too many potatoes in the tray because they will steam. You want them to be dry, and that's how you get them crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.”

Why use salt water for soaking potatoes? There's moisture naturally found in potatoes, and moisture is drawn to higher concentrations of salt. (This is a process called osmosis.) So, if you put the potatoes in a salt water bath, that will help draw out some of their moisture, resulting in crispier fries.

In a video online, Gordon explained: “For crispy roast potatoes, you can depend on them, my tip is to parboil them, leave them to steam dry, then sprinkle them with semolina or flour, and then give them a good roughing up.”

In most potato recipes, I recommend starting potatoes in cold water and bringing them up to a boil. This helps ensure that the exteriors don't turn to mush before the insides have a chance to cook through.

Why put flour on roast potatoes? ›

Sprinkle your parboiled potatoes with flour. This gives potatoes extra crunch. A tablespoon is all you need! Throw in some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves or a handful of herbs (thyme, sage or rosemary all work well) with the potatoes when adding them to the hot roasting tin.

The potatoes cook on the inside when you parboil, so the baking time is basically crisping them up to perfection, which we do at a high oven temperature. If the potatoes are raw, when you use a high temperature, the outside of the potatoes will burn before the inside cooks.

Peel the potatoes the day before. Keep submerged, whole, in cold water in a cold place. Drain, cut and cover with fresh, salted water to parboil and then roast as directed.

You should certainly rinse the potatoes — we prefer russets — to remove any dirt and debris. You can even give them a quick scrub with a vegetable brush. But you need to dry the spuds well after the bath. Excess moisture on the skin can seep into the potato during baking and cause soggy skins.

Try to keep them evenly sized, to promote even baking. Fill a large bowl with cold water and stir in 2 tablespoons of salt. Place the sliced potatoes in the salt water and let them soak for 15 to 30 minutes. This will help them bake up crispier.

If you're pressed for time, the slightly sticky, cut potatoes should be soaked for a minimum of 15 minutes. However, a longer soak time may allow more starch to be removed. So, if you can prep the fries ahead of time, a few hours of soaking can help make them even crispier.

It makes the water alkaline which helps break down the surface of the potato and helps make your potatoes crispy!

Soak the potatoes in water for at least 4 hours, up to overnight. This step is crucial to really get all of the excess starch off. Fill a large pot with water, rinse off the potatoes one last time and add them to the cold water. Salt the water, place the pot on the stove and turn on the heat.