The potatoes are overcooked, what should I do? How to cook potatoes so that they don't get mushy and remain round?

The potatoes are not boiling, what should I do? How not to overcook potatoes

Boiled potatoes are one of the tasty and satisfying side dishes. This is an excellent addition to fried chicken, pork, mushrooms, and fish. It is prepared quite simply and quickly. However, to prevent the potatoes from turning into puree during cooking, it is necessary to take into account several nuances.

Choose your recipe

1

For boiled potatoes, choose pink or yellow varieties. They are more difficult to boil than vegetables with white tubers.

2

Take tubers of the same size. Or cut large potatoes into several pieces so that the vegetables cook evenly.

3

It is better to salt the potatoes at the beginning of cooking. Salt will prevent the vegetables from boiling. Also, before putting the tubers in the water, pierce them with a knife.

4

Potatoes are difficult to boil in a slightly acidic environment. Therefore, you can add a little vinegar, a few slices of pickled cucumber or a slice of lemon to a pan of boiling water. Don’t worry, the dish will not acquire any sour taste. When preparing soup, potatoes should be dipped into the broth along with vegetables containing acid, such as cabbage or tomatoes.

5

Cook the potatoes over moderate heat. If the flame is strong, the outside will quickly boil, but the inside will remain raw.

6

To prevent the potatoes from overcooking, there is such a trick. Wait for the pan with vegetables to boil. Pour off some hot water and add cold water instead. Or another way - let the potatoes simmer for 15 minutes. Then drain 2/3 of the water and steam the dish under a closed lid.

7

Most of the vitamins and minerals in potatoes are found under the skin. And in order not to throw away useful substances in the trash, it is recommended to boil the tubers in their uniforms. Before cooking, they must be rinsed well under running water and pierced in several places with a needle. This will prevent the potatoes from boiling.

8

It is recommended to immerse peeled potatoes in boiling water, not cold. This way vegetables retain more vitamins and minerals. You can also put a few cloves of garlic, a couple of black peppercorns, bay leaves or herbs into the pan with potatoes. This will significantly improve the taste of the dish.

9

Boiled potatoes are incredibly tasty using the following recipe. Peel and rinse young medium-sized tubers. Pour water into an enamel pan, boil and add salt. Lower the vegetables and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.

10

Then drain the water and fill the potatoes with milk at room temperature instead. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until done. To prevent the milk from burning to the bottom of the pan, you need to shake it from time to time. Place the finished treat on a plate, add butter and sprinkle with herbs. Serve as a separate dish or as a side dish.

Add citric acid

In principle, it does not matter what means you use to make the water for boiling potatoes sour. The main thing is that it does not harm your health. In the absence of vinegar and lemon, I use citric acid from the pack. When cooking, I add 1 teaspoon of powder at a steady rate. The result is always pleasing - the tubers are perfectly smooth and well-cooked.

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Why are the potatoes in the soup hard? Why are potatoes hard when cooked?

The markets are already selling new potatoes in full swing, and this year’s batches are also appearing in stores. How not to make a mistake?

Look into the tuber

If you are buying potatoes for winter storage, it is better to choose not just one variety, but at least 2-3. This will make it more likely that some will last until spring, and in addition, your supplies will have potatoes for various culinary purposes. Potato varieties differ in purpose. And it is important to know their characteristics. But often they simply write the ingredients on the label.

+ Starch content above 15% - the variety is suitable for purees. The puree will be tender and fluffy, although very high in calories. Varieties: Golubizna, Lorch, Sineglazka, Lugovskoy, Adretta, Elizaveta.

+ Below 15% - for soup and salad. Such tubers do not fall apart when cooked, low-calorie: Leader, Krasavchik, Alvara, Red Scarlett, Nevsky, Udacha, Nikulinsky. And the Gourmet variety, with dark blue flesh and a high content of antioxidants, is suitable for salads. It can even be eaten fresh.

+ Dry matter - no less than 20-24%, and reducing sugars - no more than 0.5% - such potatoes can be fried, they will not crumble in a frying pan or in a deep fryer, will not acquire a bitter taste and will not darken. These varieties have the ability to “keep” starch from breaking down into sugars. Thanks to this property, potato slices retain their shape when fried. Varieties: Leader, Nadezhda, Kolobok, Bryansky early, Zhukovsky early, Impala, Felox.

ON A NOTE

When cooking mashed potatoes, it is better to put the tubers in boiling water, and for salad - in cold water. Until the water boils, some of the starch will be washed out of the “salad” potatoes, and they will not crumble.

Unwashed potatoes make the choice easier

The best domestic potatoes grow in the Lipetsk, Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov, Tver regions, and in the Moscow region. Potatoes do not like heat, which reduces the quality of the tubers. Potatoes brought from the Bryansk, Leningrad regions and from the north of Ryazan need to be chosen more pickily. In these regions there are both good and not quite suitable soils for potatoes, which produce a product of not the best quality.

If you buy unwashed potatoes (the kind that are best suited for long-term storage), consider that you have a trump card: thanks to the soil sticking to the tubers, you can understand how the potatoes will be stored and how tasty they will be.

+ The worst option is sand (hard grains of sand can be felt). On sand, the tuber is “liquid”; it is poorly stored and darkens when cooked.

+ Potatoes from peat bogs can suffer from the same shortcomings if they have been poorly cared for, but still to a lesser extent. Peat can be recognized by its deep black color; when it dries, it hardly brightens, crumbles, and is present mainly in the form of dust on potato skins.

+ It is easiest to grow good potatoes on black soil and loam. If you see a potato with black, gray or brownish plastic “dirt” stuck to the tubers, take it boldly.

BY THE WAY

Why do potatoes turn dark when cooked?

Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine whether the tubers will darken during cooking when buying potatoes. This happens due to improper storage, careless harvesting - when potatoes are beaten during harvesting, or when there is an excess of nitrogen fertilizers in the soil. In fact, all modern varieties are relatively resistant to this scourge, but still do not guarantee a solution to the problem. Lorch, Krasavchik, Golubizna, and Nikulinsky are the best at maintaining an “unblemished reputation” than others.

IMPORTANT

Signs of a good potato

1. Choose larger tubers. As a rule, they have time to ripen better, that is, they taste better and contain more vitamins.

2. Tubers are dense and hard.

3. The peel is smooth and without roughness or dark spots.

4. Eyes - clean, shallow, without a dark halo (a sign of rotting)

5. Potatoes do not crack or split when cut.

Beneficial properties of tubers

Having found out how long to cook jacket potatoes for salad, it remains to find out why this method of cooking is useful. “Mundir” gives some advantage over peeled potatoes. The table provides basic information about the vegetable cooked in its peel.

Table - Properties of jacket potatoes

Tubers in their jacket contain vitamin C and potassium. Despite the presence of starch, such potatoes are a dietary product that can be consumed in moderation without worrying about a slim figure.

Each cook chooses how to cook jacket potatoes. The main thing is to make sure that it is not overcooked. The bursting of the peel signals that the tubers should be removed from the heat. Check carefully for doneness without piercing the potatoes all the way through.

Video on the topic How to properly cook jacket potatoes for a side dish: master class from the chef

The potatoes dissolved in the water. How to store peeled potatoes for dishes

To prepare, select and wash the required number of tubers. Remove the peel with a knife or potato peeler, cut out the eyes and other damage. Peel young tubers very delicately, removing only the thinnest layer of peel. Old potatoes should be peeled more thoroughly, capturing part of the tuber along with the peel. If during the cleaning process green areas of the tuber are found, then the potatoes should be discarded.

Now you can proceed directly to storage. Let's look at four universal methods that will help you prepare potatoes for a wide variety of dishes for up to two days.

How long should you boil potatoes before frying?

First, you need to boil the potatoes for 30 minutes in water, the temperature of which should not rise above 70 °C. Then you need to drain the water and cook the potatoes in boiling water.

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Potatoes boiled in their jackets in a slow cooker

If potatoes are cooked incorrectly and for a long time using the boiling method, the vegetable loses a lot of useful substances. To avoid this, you can use a slow cooker. Thanks to it, it will be possible to maintain the integrity of the tubers, they will be easily peeled and will retain their shape when cut.

Wash the required number of tubers thoroughly. Place the potatoes in the bowl of the device and add salt. Pour water so that the vegetable is covered by no more than 2 mm. Close the multicooker lid and select the “Steam” program or similar. When finished cooking, drain the water.

If you have never cooked potatoes in a slow cooker before, then for the first time choose a maximum time of 20 minutes for cooking. Then check readiness, and if necessary, increase the time by another 10-15 minutes.

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The best way to cook potatoes in terms of preserving their beneficial properties and taste is steamed. This way you can cook it in a slow cooker, steamer, or simply place the vegetables in a container with holes (for example, a colander) that allow steam to pass through, over a pan of hot water.

Remember, to reduce steaming time, it is important to close the lid tightly.

In a slow cooker with a special mode, the potatoes will be ready in 30 minutes.

Boil potatoes with skins on for easy peeling

It often happens that boiled potatoes with skins are difficult to peel. But there is one simple secret that you can use to clean the tubers. Immediately before cooking, thoroughly wash the tubers. Then use a sharp knife to make a shallow cut around the potato and through the top.

In this form, place the vegetable in a pan and fill it with water so that it is 2 cm higher. Cook until done. Then immediately transfer the tubers to cold water to cool. Once the water is warm, peel the skins off the potatoes with a gentle movement of your fingers. You can do this directly in the pan.

Tips and Tricks

If potatoes boiled in their jackets will be used for salad, then preference should be given to early and medium varieties with a low starch content. The most rich in taste of them will be: Rossiyanka, Kalinka, Effect, Sante, Adretta, Ilyinsky and Detskoselsky.

Potatoes that have already begun to sprout or have developed long roots are not suitable for boiling in their jackets. Tubers should be selected that are dense, without visible blackening or dark spots. If potatoes with a high starch content are used for okroshka or salads, then during cooking it is necessary to add vinegar to the water (1 tbsp per 1 liter). This will prevent the tubers from boiling.

Before cooking, be sure to wash the potatoes well in plenty of water. If it is too dirty, use a stiff brush. It is not recommended to leave the vegetable after boiling over high heat. Otherwise, the tubers inside will be undercooked and will begin to crumble on top. Also, to prevent the potatoes from being overcooked, they are immediately immersed in cold water when ready. In addition, the temperature contrast improves the process of cleaning tubers.

Cooking jacket potatoes seems simple at first glance, but if you do not take into account some of the subtleties of the technological process, you can ruin the vegetables. Using these tips and tricks, you can easily cook proper and tasty potatoes, both for the main dish and for salads or okroshka.

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Potatoes for salad

For salads, for example, for Olivier salad or vinaigrette, this vegetable can be steamed, so it will retain all its beneficial properties and will not boil over. If you don’t have a double boiler or you don’t want to spend too much time preparing the dish, you can cook the tubers in their skins.

If you are afraid that potatoes cooked in this way will turn out to be dry or that they will not be able to be cut into even cubes, since they will stick to the knife, then I advise you to try the following cooking method:

• peel and wash the fruits as you usually do;
• cut them immediately into pieces suitable for salad;
• place in boiling water and start cooking.

When cooking this way, it is important to constantly monitor the readiness of the slices. Small pieces will cook much faster and should not be allowed to become overcooked.

Potatoes are suitable for salad when they become half-cooked, that is, soft, but still crunch a little on the teeth. It is at this moment that it must be removed from the heat and doused with cold water.

With this method of cooking, the root vegetable retains its shape even after stirring in the salad. This trick is also great for making summer okroshka.

Potatoes boiled in a saucepan for mashing

To prepare mashed potatoes, it is better to use crumbly varieties of mature potatoes, although others are quite suitable for this dish. The preparation is usual - the potatoes are washed, peeled and cut into pieces. You can boil the whole tubers, but it will take more time.

Preparation:

• Place well-washed and peeled potatoes in a saucepan with cold water and put on fire.
• As soon as the water boils, add salt, bay leaf and a pea of ​​allspice - all this will make the puree fragrant.
• Small potato pieces only need 15 minutes to cook. It is necessary to drain the water and remove the pepper and bay leaves.
• Put butter, a little hot boiled milk into the potatoes and mash well.