{"id":14729,"date":"2011-11-28T11:03:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=14729"},"modified":"2011-11-28T11:03:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:03:54","slug":"tip-soaking-potatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2011\/11\/tip-soaking-potatoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Tip: Soaking Potatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but I am a gigantic fan of Triple D. You know, the Food Network show with Guy Fieri, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.<\/p>\n

Every week I’ll watch the mini-marathons on Monday and Friday evenings. \u00a0And so help you if you try to stand in my way and prevent me from watching the show because I will take you out.<\/p>\n

I even have an app on my phone (TV Diner, awesome, you should totally get it) to help me find spots featured on the show.<\/p>\n

It’s a great way to introduce local and independent restaurants to folks plus I learn a lot of great tips. \u00a0On one episode I saw, a diner soaks their fries in water for 24 hours before frying them. \u00a0It helps them achieve a really crispy fry.<\/p>\n

You don’t say?<\/p>\n

I’ve tried it and it does help make for a crispy fry, and I make my fries in the oven.<\/p>\n

This Thanksgiving, I wondered if I could apply that concept to making mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n

It occured to me that if I soak the cubed potoates in a lightly salted bowl of water, that might help remove some of the starch and result in a fluffier mashed potato. \u00a0Because potatoes have so much starch to them, sometimes they turn into a very thick and glue-like mess of mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are easy to make but they can be tricky to get the right consistency and texture.<\/p>\n

In theory, removing some of the starch should help make for lighter and fluffier mashed potatoes, right?<\/p>\n

Since I’m all about experimenting, I gave it a go. \u00a0The day before Thanksgiving, I peeled and cubed my potatoes and placed them in a large bowl. \u00a0I sprinkled in some salt and filled the bowl with cold water. \u00a0Stirring everything together and I set that in the fridge letting it hang out till I was ready to use it.<\/p>\n

On Thanksgiving day, I drained the potatoes, dumped them in a pot and filled the pot with cold water. \u00a0Brought it up to a boil and went about the normal routine of making mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n

The experiment totally worked! \u00a0We had the creamiest and fluffiest mashed potatoes!<\/p>\n

Soaking the potatoes removed a good bit of the starch which meant they weren’t a heavy mess.<\/p>\n

This technique also decreased the cooking time to bring the potatoes to fork tender, probably by about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

I also had less lumps and a much smoother texture. \u00a0I used Yukon Golds which are creamy potatoes on their own but this was a whole other level of creaminess.<\/p>\n

I definitely will be doing this from now on when I make mashed potatoes. \u00a0I would imagine a full 24 hour soak isn’t necessary, just a few hours should do the trick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but I am a gigantic fan of Triple D. You know, the Food Network show with Guy Fieri, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Every week I’ll watch the mini-marathons on Monday and Friday evenings. \u00a0And so help you if you try to stand in my way and prevent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58,11],"tags":[16],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-3Pz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}