There are wealthy, creamy ones, tremendous starchy sorts, or multi-purpose varieties—all of that are finest fitted to several types of recipes. And though it gained’t essentially smash your dish altogether, selecting the most effective sort of potato for the suitable cooking approach can stage up your culinary abilities with zero effort added. We’ve gathered a number of suggestions and tips for deciphering which spuds to choose up on the retailer for no matter’s on the menu. Forward: The best potatoes for roasting in your oven (or air fryer), which sort to succeed in for whenever you’re making a luscious bowl of mashed potatoes, and extra.
What are the seven primary sorts of potatoes?
Earlier than we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s vital to know that there are seven primary sorts of potatoes and greater than 200 varieties of potatoes bought all through the US. The seven classes of potatoes are: russet, purple, white, yellow, blue/purple, fingerling, and petite. These all differ primarily based on key components like form, measurement, flesh consistency, and pores and skin texture or colour, to call a number of.
The important thing options of the seven primary sorts of potatoes:
- Russet: Thick pores and skin with a light-weight and fluffy middle
- Purple: Skinny pores and skin; stays agency when cooked
- Yellow: Wealthy, creamy texture with a buttery taste
- White: Pale-colored pores and skin and flesh that stays agency when cooked
- Purple: Medium-thick pores and skin with an earthy taste and a vibrant purple hue
- Fingerling: Nutty and buttery taste with a agency texture and a small, slender, oval-shape
- Petite: Chunk-sized variations of bigger potato varieties and extra concentrated taste
The very best potatoes for roasting within the oven or air fryer
When selecting a potato that’s splendid for roasting in your over or air fryer, you need to ensure it’s a sort that gained’t get too mealy when uncovered to excessive warmth; it ought to nonetheless preserve its form when cooked. For this, you’ll need to stick with heartier potatoes like russet, purple, yellow, purple, fingerling, or petite. These sorts are typically low in starch and excessive in moisture and have creamier flesh and waxy pores and skin. Additionally they have a tendency to carry their type properly when cooked. Along with primary roasted oven fries, wedges, or hashbrowns, these potatoes are finest fitted to different baked dishes like gratins and pommes anna, and properly as soups and salads (the place you need to maintain their form intact and never disintegrate when touched).
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The very best potatoes for making mashed potatoes
When seeking to make an award-worthy aspect of mashed potatoes, you’ll need to go for starchier potatoes which have low moisture content material and simply break down when cooked. That features varieties like Russets or yellow potatoes. BTW, for an out-of-this-world good bowl of mash, strive boiling potatoes in rooster inventory or cream (as an alternative of water) for added scrumptious taste. And don’t neglect to start out with a pot of room temperature water when boiling potatoes to keep away from over, underneath, or inconsistently cooking your spuds.
Essentially the most versatile potatoes
After all, we love a potato that may do all of it—and there are definitely some (greater than others) that may stand up to nearly each possible cooking approach attainable. These multi-purpose-style spuds embrace ones like purple, yellow, and white. They’re typically smaller in measurement and may preserve their texture when cooked—and never flip right into a pile of mush when uncovered to excessive temperatures.
Purple potatoes have a skinny pores and skin and keep agency all through cooking, which is why they’re nice for baking (or air frying), utilizing to make potato salads, including into soups, grilling, and even steaming. In the meantime, yellow potatoes are perfect for the entire aforementioned methods (with the addition of mashing). Lastly, white potatoes are additionally nice for pan-frying or sautéing, including to salads or soups, making french fries, or steaming, as they’ll keep agency all through the cooking course of.
TL; DR? It is laborious to go flawed when selecting the right potato… as long as you select the suitable cooking methodology for it.
An RD offers us much more excuses to like potatoes:
