Roasted Rosemary Potatoes | Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do you soak potatoes in water 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.

Boil chunks of potato until they're just tender, toss them none-too-gently with fat (ideally beef drippings) to rough up their surface, then roast them until they're crisp and crackling. The boiling and roughing-up steps are the real keys.

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.”

“When it comes to the perfect roasties, I always start with Maris Pipers.

A: The main reasons to cut the potatoes and pre-soak in water are: To allow the excess starches and sugars to be removed from the outer surface of the fry strips AND to keep the potatoes from browning prematurely from exposure to air. Covering in water helps the potato from turning a dark color.

How long can peeled and cut potatoes sit in water before cooking, before they begin taking on too much water? A: We usually recommend no more than 24 hours. You can keep the potatoes from absorbing the water by making sure the water is not salted, and is chilled (you can even add ice to the water).

Roast for 1hr until golden and crisp, and don't forget to turn them occasionally to ensure they cook evenly. Here's a few tricks to try to make them even more delicious. Sprinkle your parboiled potatoes with flour. This gives potatoes extra crunch.

Neutral, low-cost oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, etc., work well for roasting. These oils have a high smoke point, allowing the potatoes to get very hot to achieve maximum crispiness.

If the potatoes are raw, when you use a high temperature, the outside of the potatoes will burn before the inside cooks. That's why the parboiling is really important! Now these potatoes are my "basic" ones with my usual go-to seasoning.

Why are my roast potatoes never crispy? ›

Just as overcrowding bacon or mushrooms in a saucepan causes disappointingly mushy results, placing potatoes too close to each other on a baking sheet will prevent them from crisping while they roast. Ovens are like saunas, blasting potatoes with dry, hot air.

Goose fat is one of the first choices for roast potatoes because first of all – it tastes nice! It has a really rich flavour compared to your more common vegetable oils. It's a bit like how cooking your roast potatoes in dripping from your turkey can add more flavour to your spuds too – they're both animal fats.

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Although Yukon Golds are the best potatoes for roasting, you can definitely use them in an array of recipes that call for waxy or starchy potatoes. Try Yukon Gold potatoes in Golden, Crispy Rosemary Roasted Potatoes or Dauphinoise Potatoes.

And potatoes are even more confusing: you can both roast and bake a potato, but a roast potato aims for crispiness, while a baked potato aims for softness.

Red potatoes are great for roasting, cooking in soups, or boiling or steaming for potato salad. The waxy nature of the flesh means they'll maintain their shape, but it also means they will get gluey when overworked, so you'll want to choose a different potato for mashing.

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.

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.

Soaking the sliced potatoes in water helps to draw out some of the starch from the middle of the potato, resulting in a sturdier, crispier French fry.

But the new research by the UK team led by Dr Rachel Burch from Leatherhead Food International found that a simple measure of pre-soaking potatoes before frying can dramatically reduce the formation of acrylamide and may therefore reduce any subsequent risk it may pose.