Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium low. 5. Cover the pot and simmer until potatoes are tender — about 15 to 20 minutes. A knife tip inserted into a potato should meet no resistance; if the potato clings to the knife, the potatoes need to cook longer.
Turn heat to high and cover slightly. Once boiling uncover and drop heat to a simmer. Cook until you can pierce potatoes easily with a fork, about 15 minutes. Strain potatoes and place back into the pot.
Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with 1-inch of water. Sprinkle in a pinch or two of salt and bring to a boil. Putting the potatoes in the water while it is still cold will ensure the outside does not cook too much faster than the inside.
Boiled New Potatoes
Place the salad potatoes in a pan and boiling water to cover the potatoes. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for approximately 15-20 minutes until just tender.
But as long as more energy is being added to the water than is being lost with the vapor, the temperature will continue to rise until the water boils. Covering the pot prevents water vapor from escaping, enabling the temperature to rise more quickly.
Covering your pot will help to trap heat inside. That means if you're trying to bring something to a simmer or a boil, such as a pot of water to cook pasta or blanching vegetables, put the lid on to save energy and allow the contents to achieve the boiling point more quickly.
Wherever you choose to grow your potatoes, covering potato plants with loose, organic material is essential for proper potato development. With any method, potato plants are hilled up or covered whenever the potato vine reaches about 6 to 8 inches (15-20 cm.) tall.
If you first boil water and then add potato pieces, you'll have a less than ideal texture in the end. The sudden bath of boiling water will quickly cook the outside of the spuds while leaving the inside uncooked. Instead, add all your potato cubes to a pot, and fill it with water just over the top of the potatoes.
The boiling point
Cubed spuds will take around 15 minutes where larger chunks or whole new potatoes will be 20-25 minutes. To check when they are done, pierce the potatoes with the tip of a knife to see how much resistance there is. If it goes in easily, you're done!
The lesson here is that you can keep potatoes from turning brown by storing cut potatoes in cold water to slow the oxidation process (aka the thing that makes peeled potatoes turn brown). You probably should keep them covered in an airtight container though.
The cup of salt is there to make the potato water highly concentrated so that the salt can do its magic on those dense potatoes in the 15 or 20 minutes they take to cook through.
Add a tablespoon of butter or margarine to the cooking water when boiling potatoes to prevent the water from boiling over.
Start cooking the potatoes in cold water: This ensures that the potatoes cook evenly. Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the middles are still hard and crunchy.
“Cooking potatoes in unseasoned water prevents the starch from cooking thoroughly and creates a bland dense finished product. I would say not salting the water is like gifting a pair of shoes without laces.
The Mistake: Overworking the Potatoes with a Food Processor, Blender or Mixer. Too much — or too vigorous — mashing will produce gluey potatoes. Your best tool is an old-fashioned masher, fork, ricer or food mill.
Do NOT add cold liquid. Make sure the milk or cream you add to your potatoes is HOT. This helps it absorb better so you don't feel the need to overmix. Overmixing is bad.
Put the cut potatoes in a large pot.
Add salt to the water, if desired. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium low.
If you don't hill your potatoes, you are more likely to end up with green tubers. This happens when potatoes are exposed to sunlight. This potato has been exposed to sunlight and turned green as a result.
Earthing up potatoes will increase the length of underground stems that will bear potatoes. This mounding can be repeated once or twice more at 2 – 3 week intervals to ensure the best crop, with the added benefit of smothering any competing weeds.
Do not wrap potatoes in aluminum foil for baking. Foil holds in moisture and steams the potatoes, resulting in a "boiled" taste and texture. Turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time to prevent browning of the undersides where they touch the baking tray or oven rack.
Lumpy mashed potatoes generally mean undercooked potatoes. If you get to this point and you realize you've undercooked your potatoes, just add a little bit of milk or cream and cook the potatoes over a low heat until the lumps begin to soften.
Overcooked potatoes aren't always dry and hard, as it's possible to overboil a potato too. When you do so, more water is absorbed by the potato. Then, when you go to mash them, the water releases, resulting in that sad, soupy mess you may want to toss in a compost pile far, far away.