Ask Dr. Potato

Q: My family is expecting plain old mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. I’ll make those but in addition I would like to make something different with the extra mashed Idaho potatoes. What can I surprise them with for a fun recipe?

Q: I just bought a new slow cooker, since they were on sale I actually went for the Crock® Pot brand and I am so excited to try new recipes. Do you have any suggestions for using Idaho Potatoes for a slow cooker recipe?

Q: I'm dicing Yukon Gold potatoes to make hash browns or home fried potatoes. How many pounds of potatoes should I be using? There will be other sides. It's a breakfast with eggs, grits, and oatmeal as options and/or additions to each plate.

Q: I will be serving a baked potato bar for my son's graduation (150-200 people). I planned on cutting in half, applying olive oil and then cooking for about 30 min. At that point I need to keep the potatoes warm. I was thinking either a preheated insulated cooler or roaster. Which do you think will work best? They will need to stay warm for approx. 5 hours. Thanks so much for your help!

Q: Every once in a great while I get the most perfect baked potato in a restaurant that I would love to duplicate at home. I prefer a potato that is a little denser rather than fluffy on the inside, with the skin crispy and pulling away from the outside surface of the potato. Any suggestions of how to achieve this type of dense texture?

Q: I use Idaho potatoes, wash them, dry them, poke them, and cut the ends off in a 400 degree F oven until done. In the last year, twice, one out of five potatoes burst in the oven. Stinky and messy. I have been baking potatoes since a kid with a wood burning oven. Why does this happen?

Q: I read your article about cooking large quantities of baked potatoes and putting them in a cooler to keep them hot. We do a fish dinner every year during Lent and cook about 250 potatoes a week for 6 weeks. Do you have any data on how long it takes for the baked potatoes to reach 185 degrees F? We wrap (I know, I know) the potatoes and put about 30 -35 potatoes on a full size sheet pan. We put in two racks per oven. Normally we set the commercial gas oven to 500 degrees F. Is it better to cook them at 400 degrees F?

Q: How do you re-heat baked potatoes when they were served two days prior, and were wrapped in foil when they were baked?

Q: I run a small burger and fry business in Nashville TN. We serve about 3200lbs a month of russet potatoes as fries. My produce suppliers have run out of Burbank russets for the year and are only able to supply me with a new-crop of Norkotah russets that are making awful, awful fries that I'm embarrassed to serve! We use a hot-water blanch to cook our 1/2" fries done in a dilute vinegar solution, followed by a 300 degree blanch fry that takes 8-10 minutes to remove most of the moisture. They're then frozen and stored, cooked 2 minutes at 350 degrees for sales. They come out mealy and sweet, not to mention tough, and they last about two minutes before they're basically awful, limp horrors. I've tried lowering the pre-fry temperatures and cooking them longer but I never want to see a Norkotah again... Would switching to a Kennebec or Ranger help until Burbanks come back? Is there some magic trick to cooking these abominations? Complaints are coming in from all directions and I'm in panic mode. Please help!

Q: I own a restaurant and we serve stuffed baked potatoes. I need to be able to cook a good bit of potatoes and then hold them until ordered. What is the best way to do this without them getting dry?