Baked potato poll

Personally, I usually eat the skin. How about you?

I don't do this in restaurants, but growing up at home, and I still do it, we would cut the baked potato in half, scoop out the white, mash it up with a fork, top with some butter and eat it like mashed potatoes. To the still hot skins, I'd add a pat of butter and some salt and eat it separate from the rest of the potato. In restaurants, I cut up my baked potato and top with butter and sour cream.

I eat the potato skins in restaurants and at home. When eating out, I simply cut a small portion of the skin off with the potato left inside. Sometimes I will add a little extra butter or Worchestershire. Of course, it has to be a baked potato, not steamed in the microwave, and with a crispy skin.

The real question is not whether one eats the skin but what prep does one do to make it yummy when it comes out? Rubbed with oil, butter, salt, black pepper, herbs? Wrapped in foil or left bare?

[David M. Bueker]

Rubbed with oil or butter then salt & pepper. Baked on a tray with no wrapper.

Baking potatoes in foil is the work of satan.

Personally, I usually eat the skin. How about you?

Ditto

Rubbed with oil or butter then salt & pepper. Baked on a tray with no wrapper.

Baking potatoes in foil is the work of satan.

I rub with olive oil and use large-flaked sea salt. I agree with the foil thing, but at least spell Satan's name with a capital "S." You really don't want to annoy him.

[Jenise]

The real question is not whether one eats the skin but what prep does one do to make it yummy when it comes out? Rubbed with oil, butter, salt, black pepper, herbs? Wrapped in foil or left bare?

Baked bare at 450 for two hours. Sure, a potato is technically done in about an hour, but longer cooking yields spectacular results: the skin is so crispy it shatters and doesn't soften upon removal from the oven, and the insides achieve a sweetness and creaminess not possible in less time.

If you bake them for quite awhile, you can more easily scoop out that bland stuff inside, leaving the good part - the skins with all the vitamins - to be anointed with butter, bacon, cheese or what's-your-fancy and eaten.

There are other better uses for the innards!

I do the butter rub before baking, unwrapped, and then enjoy the crispy skin.

Last night, I did it a bit differently. I roasted a chicken in a rack and added whole fingerling potatoes to the roasting pan. The schmalz from the chicken dripped down onto the potatoes and created a luscious coating on the skins. Not for everyday eating, but man they were tasty.

G

Like several of the others - generously buttered and salted before baking - once done, to cut partway through with a knife, to part the potatoes with the fingers, to insert more butter, then to enjoy first the white and then, again with more butter and salt, the crisp skins. As my daughter puts it so nicely: "Yummy for the tummy"

The real question is not whether one eats the skin but what prep does one do to make it yummy when it comes out? Rubbed with oil, butter, salt, black pepper, herbs? Wrapped in foil or left bare?

Always naked. In a 450 oven. Poke a couple of holes in it with a fork. Just a little over an hour.

Cut a cross in the top with a fork (make dotted lines). Grab it with thumb and forefinger at either end and squeeze. It opens like a blossoming flower. Load it up with everything and eat the whole damn thing.

What Jenise said.

Naked, 'til done, plus about an hour.

mmm...

We love, love, love baked potatoes but hardly ever order them out. We usually find them to be pretty awful in restaurants.
I rub them with butter, roll them in kosher salt and bake right on the oven rack at 375 for about an hour to an hour and a half (depending on their size). I cook until they feel soft inside when I push on them but the skin feels thick and crusty. We've been buying these medium sized russets in a five pound bag that are moist and creamy. Wonderful.
Agree with David. Cooking in foil (unless they go directly into white hot coals) steams them. Awful.

[Robin Garr]

Rub it with a little butter. Sprinkle it with flake salt and coarse black pepper. Roast at 450 until it's done. Always eat the skin and all.

Yes...I eat my skin and my hubby's! YUM!

There's a Hannibal Lecter joke in there somewhere, Maria.

Leave it to you Stuart to find the humor in such a simple, statement!

[David M. Bueker]

Or a porn film...

A bit of intentional thread drift here. Quite frankly, I don't make baked potatoes often. I prefer steamed baby potatoes or white potatoes or red-skinned with butter and parsley. I think steaming is better than boiling - more flavor. However, those types don't seem to bake very well. Russetts seem to be better for baking, but seem to turn to mush when boiling or steaming. And what about Yukon gold? I've steamed them and also used them for mashed, but how do they bake? I've never tried baking them.

I eat the skins also. I like to rub with EVOO and sprinkle with sea salt, then bake for about an hour at 425F.

I always eat the skin for baked sweet potatoes.

Never thought to bake these other kinds of potatoes.

I always eat the skin for baked sweet potatoes.

Never thought to bake these other kinds of potatoes.

Sweet potatos I never eat the skin. Never heard of anyone doing it, either.

Sweet potatos I never eat the skin. Never heard of anyone doing it, either.

You're crazy! You must hang around some strange people.

Although, to be more precise, it does depend on the type of sweet potato, thickness of skin, etc. Now that you mention it, sometimes I do leave the skin when it's baked. I actually rarely do this type of cooking. Much preferring roasted potatoes to baked potatoes.