Baked: REQ: Baked Potatos...how to

Subject: REQ: Baked Potatos...how to
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: Josh Robinson (josh at cnw.com)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 11:31:13 -0700
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Hello, I know this may sound silly....but I don't have a cook-book, and I have been guesing on how to bake potatos...This is what I remember for seeing my Mom bake them:

1. Wash them thoughly, and pre-heat oven ( but I am not sure what temp)
2. Poke holes in them with a fork
3. Wrap foil around them
4. Put them in oven ( not sure how long though)
5. Take out of oven, and eat...

Also, sometimes, I think my mom cooked the potatos in the microwave for a few minutes before putting them in the oven...

Please tell me if I am wrong or wright...and tell me how you bake potatos...
From: vox at vex.io.com (Vox Populi)
Date: 19 Apr 1999 20:42:51 GMT
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All sounds pretty good. Here's what I do:

- Wash potatoes, vent them with a fork
- Nuke them for 5-10 minutes in the microwave
- Continue baking them at 425F in the oven for 45+ minutes

No foil involved in my recipe, you'll note. It's a matter of personal preference. I like the crispier skins. When checking a potato for its doneness, open the oven and with an oven mitt gently squeeze one of the potatoes. If it gives a bit, its probably done. If you overbake a potato it will have a very tough outer skin but should still be mealy inside (unless you overbake it for dozens of hours :) so it's a good thing to prepare with other foods because it's hard to cook it for too long.
From: aem (aemretd at worldnet.att.net)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 14:51:07 -0700
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First, buy russet potatoes, aka Idaho baking potatoes. You don't want to bake the thin skinned ones like White Rose and Red Rose. You can, though, buy Yukon Gold potatoes, if your market has them. They are very tasty, and good for both baking and
mashing.

Scrub them, because they grow under the ground and you're going to eat the skin.

Oven temp -- 400 F, give or take 25.

Punctured -- yeah, to be safe, but just one or two jabs with a fork is plenty.

Oiled or not -- oiled, they cook faster, the skin stays moister but less crispy than dry.

How long -- they're done when they feel soft when you squeeze them. About an hour at 400.

Twice-baked -- a great American cook named James Beard (whose book, American Cookery would be a good one for you to start with) liked to bake them at 400 for two hours. They shrivel up, but the skin is really something -- very tasty and chewy -- and the insides is still mealy.

Microwave -- you can cook them (on high, about six minutes for one average size potato) but they will not have the same consistency as baked, especially the skin, and unless you turn them and invert them a few times during the cooking they will be unevenly cooked. You can use the micro to speed up the baking process if you're short of time. Prepare them, zap them until about 2/3 cooked, then finish in the oven. Not as good, but can save time.

Toppings -- your choice. First, stab it a bunch of times with a fork, then hold both ends and push toward the center to fluff it up. We go through phases, sometimes wanting "everything," sometimes just a little butter, salt and pepper, when we want to really enjoy the potato itself. Especially with Yukon Golds. Do pick up some fresh chives at the market the next time you buy potatoes. Rinse them, snip them (easiest with scissors) into the fluffed up potato.
From: stan at tempest.temple.edu (Stanley Horwitz)
Date: 19 Apr 1999 22:13:20 GMT
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Baking potatoes is easy. Use a Russett or Idaho potato. Wash the potato under cold running water. Turn up the oven to 500 degrees (yes, I said 500). Poke a few holes in the potato with a knife. Put the potatoe in the middle of the oven. Close the oven door. Come back in 30 minutes to turn the potato over. Wait 30 minutes more. Your potato is done. I am assuming a large potato here.

DO NOT WRAP THE POTATOES IN FOIL! Doing so traps the steam in the potato and results in what is really a boiled, not baked potato.
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: Baked Potatos...how to
From: Dimitri G Criona (DIMITRI_C at prodigy.net)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 14:31:37 -0700
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Josh Robinson wrote:

>1. Wash them thoughly, and pre-heat oven ( but I am not sure what temp)

Good Idea - 350 to 400 degrees

>2. Poke holes in them with a fork

A must - or they can explode

>3. Wrap foil around them

Optional - Only good if you want to keep them warm in the oven for a long time.

>4. Put them in oven ( not sure how long though)

A medium potato will take about 50 to 60 min at 375 depending on how many you are cooking.

>5. Take out of oven, and eat...

Not yet - some or all of the following : Butter, salt, pepper, bacon bits, sour cream, chives, cheese (preferably cheedar).

Optional: If you like crispy skin use 1 A) dry the potato and rub the skin with oil.

>Also, sometimes, I think my mom cooked the potatos in the microwave for a
>few minutes before putting them in the oven...

Not a great idea - they tend to cook unevenly - can work pretty well if you poke holes all over the potato.
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: REQ: Baked Potatos...how to
From: Vintik (vintik at my-dejanews.com)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 23:16:28 GMT
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You can even bake them *completely* in microwave, without using the oven at all. Depending on how powerful the microwave is and how big the potato is, it will take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes. Just wash the potato, make lots of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into microwave. Since when you try it the first time, you do not know how much time your misrowave needs, take it out in 5 minutes or so and see if it's cooked or not. If not, put it in for some more.

Some people claim that baking them in the oven is better, but I think oven and microwave baked, they taste virtually the same.
From: damsel_in_dis_dress at my-dejanews.com (Damsel in dis Dress)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 23:42:37 GMT
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vintik eloquently stated:
>You can even bake them *completely* in microwave, without using the oven
>at all. Depending on how powerful the microwave is and how big the potato
>is, it will take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes. Just wash the potato,
>make lots of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into microwave.

CAREFUL .... this will only work with some of the newer, metal-friendly microwave ovens. In most, it will cause the most awesome lightning display you've ever seen.

Damsel, who once put a maple syrup bottle with a foil label in her microwave oven .... whoa!
From: aem (aemretd at worldnet.att.net.invalid)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 17:18:48 -0700
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vintik wrote:
> Just wash the potato, make lots
> of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into
> microwave.

Maybe it's impolite to say so, but this is twice doubtful. Most microwaves will not handle a big lump of aluminum foil. You can do a lot of damage that way. Second, microwave cooking is more like steaming than baking. You can tell the difference in the skin from across the room -- no way will the skin of a zapped tater be even close to the texture and taste of a baked one.
From: ncarey at harlequin.com (Nicholas Carey)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 02:04:25 GMT
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vintik wrote:
> Some people claim that baking them in the oven is better, but I think oven and
> microwave baked, they taste virtually the same.

Ah...but 'baking' them like you describe isn't baking them -- it's steaming them.
From: Janet Bostwick (janbost at cyberhighway.net)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 10:15:48 -0600
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I was amazed to find pre-baked potatoes in the produce section of my grocery store. They were incredibly expensive, about $2 a piece. They came in a package with instructions on how to re-heat them.
From: Karen O'Mara (karen at randomgraphics.com)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 09:12:42 -0800
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Nicholas Carey wrote:
> Ah...but 'baking' them like you describe isn't baking them --
> it's steaming them.

Especially when the crispy skins [from hi-temp reg oven] are your favorite part...
From: Edwin Pawlowski (esp at snet.net)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:33:49 -0400
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vintik wrote:
> You can even bake them *completely* in microwave, without using the oven at
> all.

Oh no you cannot! Baking required the application of heat such as in an oven. Microwaves can cook a potato, but they have no baking abilities.

There is a difference in the terminology and a difference in the results.
From: stan at tempest.temple.edu (Stanley Horwitz)
Date: 23 Apr 1999 18:44:01 GMT
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Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
> Oh no you cannot! Baking required the application of heat such as in an
> oven. Microwaves can cook a potato, but they have no baking abilities.
>
> There is a difference in the terminology and a difference in the results.

I couldn't agree more! A potato that's fully cooked in a microwave oven might taste good to some people, but its an entirely different result than letting it bake in a regular oven. The microwaved potato has a slightly gummy texture and it doesn't taste quite the same. The skin is also not dry and crispy.
From: Karen O'Mara (karen at randomgraphics.com)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 09:11:21 -0800
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vintik wrote:
> will take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes. Just wash the potato, make lots
> of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into microwave.

I didn't know you could use aluminum foil in the microwave like that.
From: ncarey at harlequin.com (Nicholas Carey)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 18:23:42 GMT
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Karen O'Mara wrote:
> I didn't know you could use aluminum foil in the microwave like that.

It's exciting! We used to get CDs w/operating system updates every month -- the old ones got fed to the microwave. About 20 seconds and a lot of lightning and you had some really beautiful crazed designs in the foil substrate.

NOTE: DON'T TRY THIS. I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S A FIRE HAZARD.
From: vox at vex.io.com (Vox Populi)
Date: 20 Apr 1999 18:40:19 GMT
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Nicholas Carey wrote:
>NOTE: DON'T TRY THIS. I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S A FIRE HAZARD.

Several of these adorn my workspace, by the way. The hazards of too much Twinkie consumption and access to industrial microwaves.

And to keep this on topic, thanks you guys for bringing up Taco Hell repeatedly. Gave me a craving and I had to have it for lunch today. Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.
From: Edwin Pawlowski (esp at snet.net)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 22:39:50 -0400
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> will take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes. Just wash the potato, make lots
> of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into microwave.
> Since when you try it the first time, you do not know how much time your
> misrowave needs, take it out in 5 minutes or so and see if it's cooked or
> not. If not, put it in for some more.

The post is frought with many errors. Aluminum reflects microwaves. You can wrap a chocolate bar in foil and put it in the mw. Nothing happens as the waves cannot penetrate the foil.

Five minutes in not enough time to tell if a potato is properly cooked. Cooks that use them properly allow standing time to complete the cooking process. Microwaved potatoes can be wrapped in a towel and still be hot and cooked through a half hour later. Notice I said cooked, not baked. Baking required a dry heat source such as an oven.
From: stan at tempest.temple.edu (Stanley Horwitz)
Date: 23 Apr 1999 18:38:03 GMT
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Karen O'Mara wrote:
> I didn't know you could use aluminum foil in the microwave like that.

My ten year old microwave oven certainly won't handle aluminum foil. Perhaps newer microwave ovens will.
From: Nancy Young (qwerty at mail.monmouth.com)
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 14:43:36 -0400
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Stanley Horwitz wrote:
> My ten year old microwave oven certainly won't handle aluminum foil.
> Perhaps newer microwave ovens will.

It was easily 8-9 years ago that I was telling a coworker that I was surprised to see a microwave recipe calling for protecting the corners of a square baking dish with foil. I had to bring in the article to convince them. I never tried it, myself.
From: ncarey at harlequin.com (Nicholas Carey)
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 00:48:11 GMT
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You can actually get away with the [judicious] use of aluminum foil/metal in a 'nuke -- you have to maintain a sufficient distance between the metal and the walls of the oven. It's a useful technique if you want to cook some parts of the food and not others.

'Sufficent distance' means the metal has to be far enough away or positioned so that there is no spark gap between the metal and the oven wall.

Determination of 'sufficent distance' is, of course, left as an exercise for the reader.
From: Pondscum (colvard at aladdin.es.dupont.com)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 20:05:42 GMT
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Josh Robinson wrote:

> 1. Wash them thoughly, and pre-heat oven ( but I am not sure what temp)

400, or 450 if you want to speed up the process a bit.

> 2. Poke holes in them with a fork

I use the tip af a paring knife. One or two pokes about an inch deep.

> 3. Wrap foil around them

Maybe if you're roasting 'em on the grill. Do that in the oven and you've got a steamed, not baked, potato

> 4. Put them in oven ( not sure how long though)

About an hour, a little more maybe for a huge spud.

> 5. Take out of oven, and eat...

Don't forget the SC, butter & Chive.

> Also, sometimes, I think my mom cooked the potatos in the microwave for a
> few minutes before putting them in the oven...

I've done this before. About 5 min. nuking will cut the baking time down to about 20 minutes.
From: Tania Hewes (taniah at geac.com)
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 09:42:22 -0400
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This is my preferred method for baking potatoes, as well.

But tell me, I've noticed that when I am baking potatoes, about 40 minutes into the baking time the whole house starts smelling like I'm baking a chocolate cake. Has anyone else experienced this, or am I crazy?
From: stan at tempest.temple.edu (Stanley Horwitz)
Date: 23 Apr 1999 18:45:01 GMT
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Tania Hewes wrote:
> But tell me, I've noticed that when I am baking potatoes, about
> 40 minutes into the baking time the whole house starts
> smelling like I'm baking a chocolate cake. Has anyone
> else experienced this, or am I crazy?

No, and possibly yes! :)
From: stan at tempest.temple.edu (Stanley Horwitz)
Date: 23 Apr 1999 18:41:29 GMT
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Pondscum wrote:
> Don't forget the SC, butter & Chive.

Yucky! For a truly sublime potato, use only butter as a topping and dip in some Heinz Ketchup! Yum! I think I might have a baked potato tonight, especially since I have to run to the supermarket after work anyway!
From: pattee at CUBoulder.Colorado.EDU (Donna Pattee)
Date: 23 Apr 1999 13:00:52 -0600
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Stanley Horwitz wrote:
> For a truly sublime potato, use only butter as a topping and dip
>in some Heinz Ketchup! Yum! I think I might have a baked potato tonight,
>especially since I have to run to the supermarket after work anyway!

Warnings should be provided for posts like this. I almost lost my lunch - it's pathetic the ways people can think of to ruin perfectly good food.
From: Pat (pcf5115 at my-dejanews.com)
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 21:48:31 GMT
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Just poke one hole in them in a 400 deg oven for one hour.
This will give you a crisp shell.
I love to eat the shells with butter on them.

If you want a soft shell, poke a hole in each one, and then rub with a little oil and wrap in tin foil and cook one hour in 400 deg.

If you are cooking a roast, just do as above and put them in the oven along side the roast pan at 350 deg oven for about 2- to 2-1/2 hours. Test them for tenderness around 2 hours. They stay warm, just throw a towel over them until the roast is cooked.
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: REQ: Baked Potatos...how to -- correction
From: vintik at my-dejanews.com
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 01:12:56 GMT
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> will take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes. Just wash the potato, make lots
> of holes with a fork, wrap it in aluminum wrap and put it into microwave.

Sorry, I did not mean to say anything about wrapping it into aluminum wrap -- that would not be good. You *should not* wrap it if you use microwave to cook it. I was thinking about foil while typing and I guess that's how it got into my message. Sorry again.
From: rdyoung at wcc.net (Bob Y.)
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 12:48:23 GMT
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vintik wrote:
>Sorry, I did not mean to say anything about wrapping it into aluminum wrap --
>that would not be good. You *should not* wrap it if you use microwave to cook
>it.

Actually you shouldn't wrap a potato in aluminum foil even in the oven. Instead of getting nice fluffy insides and a crisp skin (pass the butter, salt and pepper), you get a soggy, insipid steamed potato. If that's what you want, you can probably get it faster using a steamer on top of the stove.

If I'm in a hurry, I'll microwave it and then transfer to the oven to finish it.