Griddle/Pan Fried: Pan Fried Potatoes

Subject: Pan Fried Potatoes
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: U.N. Owen (tq3741 at hotmail.ca)
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 14:14:09 GMT
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I've a rather dumb question. Every time I make pan-fried potatoes (sliced potatoes, fresh or boiled, fried in a thin layer of oil), they stick to the frying pan and I have a layer of hard, crisp potato that has to be soaked overnight to remove. It doesn't matter if I use an iron frying pan or a teflon pan, they still stick.

I was told to wash the cut potatoes to remove as much starch as possible, but this doesn't seem to work.

Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?

Alan
From: sue at interport dotnet (Curly Sue)
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 14:25:43 GMT
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You need more oil. A "thin layer" is not enough to fry potatoes.
From: mmm at winery.garlic.com (Mark Thorson)
Date: 8 Dec 2000 06:55:19 -0800
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Keep the potatoes moving until they start to cook on the outside. Every few seconds, nudge the potatoes to keep an adhesive bond from forming. Once they are slightly fried on that side, they will stop sticking.

If you just put the potatoes and oil in the pan and expect them to cook themselves, they will expect you to clean the pan afterwards. Potatoes are funny that way. New potatoes (fresh potatoes that haven't been in storage) have more of this kind of attitude.
From: ndooley at blue.weeg.uiowa.edu (Nancy Dooley)
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 17:23:34 GMT
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Mark Thorson wrote:
>If you just put the potatoes and oil in the pan and expect
>them to cook themselves, they will expect you to clean the pan
>afterwards. Potatoes are funny that way. New potatoes (fresh
>potatoes that haven't been in storage) have more of this kind
>of attitude.

"Tato 'tude."

In addition to Mark's comments, make sure the pan is HOT before you put in the shortening/oil/whatever.

N.
From: Dimitri (Dimitri_C at prodigy.net)
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 07:41:19 -0800
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U.N. Owen wrote:
> I've a rather dumb question. Every time I make pan-fried potatoes (sliced
> potatoes, fresh or boiled, fried in a thin layer of oil), they stick to the
> frying pan and I have a layer of hard, crisp potato that has to be soaked

I believe you are not allowing the oil to heat sufficiently before adding the potatoes.

Please keep the old rule in mind *hot pan, cool oil = no stick*

Heat the pan first , then add the oil, wait a minute or 2 then add the potatoes. The pan heats the oil then the oil cooks the potatoes.
From: Martha Hughes (bastzine at worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2000 14:44:58 GMT
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Use a nonstick pan, that way you don't have to have so much oil.
From: Stan Horwitz (stan at typhoon.ocis.temple.edu)
Date: 8 Dec 2000 15:55:01 GMT
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U.N. Owen wrote:
> I've a rather dumb question. Every time I make pan-fried potatoes (sliced
> potatoes, fresh or boiled, fried in a thin layer of oil), they stick to the
> frying pan and I have a layer of hard, crisp potato that has to be soaked

I don't have that problem. I use a non-stick pan and let it get very hot before adding the oil. The trick is to make sure the pan is hot before you put anything in it. You also need to move the potatoes around in the pan every few minutes as they cook in order to prevent them from sticking.
From: Melna Barda (mbarda at ameritech.net)
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 10:19:23 -0600
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U.N. Owen wrote:
> I've a rather dumb question. Every time I make pan-fried potatoes (sliced
> potatoes, fresh or boiled, fried in a thin layer of oil), they stick to the
> frying pan and I have a layer of hard, crisp potato that has to be soaked

Are you heating the pan at the highest setting? I would go with a hot but not the hottest for your cooktop.