Baked Potato

[Tom NJ]

If you wrap potatoes in aluminum foil, be sure to either remove the foil within a few hours or, if you leave the foil on, refrigerate. Foil wrapped potatoes left at room temperature for more than a day can (and have) develop botulism. Tightly wrapped foil creates the anaerobic environment needed for botulinum spores to hatch and grow.

Tom NJ

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
I'm trying to eat healthier. I've stopped eating fries and am eating Baked Potato's instead. So I have been trying to cook them at home and am having trouble.

Everywhere I read says 350-400F for 45 min to an hr. I tried this and they were still room temp inside and uncooked.

So I bumped it up to 425 and an hr. Not cooked!

Bought a thermometer to check my oven and its ok.

My house is @ 3100 ft elevation. Does elevation effect cooking time or temp?

I'm getting pretty good ones @ 2 hrs! What am I doing wrong?


You can always make home made oven fries. Cut the potato into wedges sized or a bit smaller pieces, toss them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, lowrys seasoning, garlic powder etc. and bake at about 400 degrees until golden brown.

 

[Shannow]

Drew, the EVO oil sprays are good for making potatoe wedges/thick chips.

If I don't have a spray, I'll get a 2 quart (litre actually) jug, fill it with water, put a film of olive oil over the top of the water and drop the potatoes (for roast potatoes) through the oil film to coat them...

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Shannow


If I don't have a spray, I'll get a 2 quart (litre actually) jug, fill it with water, put a film of olive oil over the top of the water and drop the potatoes (for roast potatoes) through the oil film to coat them...


That is genius! If you toss them in a bowl with oil, they some times end up too soggy and loaded down with oil.

I will definitely be trying your dunking trick.

 

[punisher]

All this potato talk.

I grew up in a restaurant and can remember the kitchen help wrapping potatoes in foil (dispensed like Kleenex from a box) and baking those things for close to 90 minutes. They would do a new batch every hour or so to keep up with demand, otherwise they were kept in a warmer, not too long as they begin to taste "off" after awhile.

Anyways, back in the mid/late 60s my grand dad owned one of the first microwave ovens in the area. We had people from all over coming in to look at that behemoth and watch it boil a cup of water in 15 seconds. It was a major novelty item for months. I remember it was well over 4' tall with the oven interior near the bottom. Liquid cooled magnetron on it to. I remember just after he got it the water pump on it started to leak. They had to break the whole thing down, and pull the radiator on the top off it to get the guts out of it.

All that just so we could do baked potatoes quicker.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
The type of oven will make a significant difference in cooking time. Our main oven (a convection oven) will take about 90 minutes at 400 degrees to bake an average size russet potato. Our toaster oven will bake the same type and size potato at the same temperature setting in about 40 minutes. The internal temperature of each oven is the same, but potatoes don't cook as quickly in a large oven.

The big difference is the distance from the heat source. Baked potatoes cook better and faster when very close to the heat source.


So then it isn't the same temperature in the big oven. There is a big gradient in there obviously that causes the cooking temp close by to be lower (if it were exactly the same they would cook n the same time, regardless of volume in the oven). Don't the nicer ovens have a high-temp fan inside to prevent this?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
The type of oven will make a significant difference in cooking time. Our main oven (a convection oven) will take about 90 minutes at 400 degrees to bake an average size russet potato. Our toaster oven will bake the same type and size potato at the same temperature setting in about 40 minutes. The internal temperature of each oven is the same, but potatoes don't cook as quickly in a large oven.

The big difference is the distance from the heat source. Baked potatoes cook better and faster when very close to the heat source.


So then it isn't the same temperature in the big oven. There is a big gradient in there obviously that causes the cooking temp close by to be lower (if it were exactly the same they would cook n the same time, regardless of volume in the oven). Don't the nicer ovens have a high-temp fan inside to prevent this?


Indeed they do. The huge time difference exposes a problem with that convection oven.

In ours you reduce cooking times at least 25% for most foods.

 

[Mr_Incredible]

A standard sized potato in my electric oven, situated at 910ft ASL, scrubbed but with no foil wrapper, is done in an hour or less. I place them over the heating element, about 5-6 inches above.

If I were the OP I would invest in an oven thermometer or two to see what the heck was going on. No potato less than 5lbs should take that long to cook. Something is amiss, regardless of the altitude.

 

[123Saab]

Originally Posted By: Mr_Incredible
A standard sized potato in my electric oven, situated at 910ft ASL, scrubbed but with no foil wrapper, is done in an hour or less. I place them over the heating element, about 5-6 inches above.

If I were the OP I would invest in an oven thermometer or two to see what the heck was going on. No potato less than 5lbs should take that long to cook. Something is amiss, regardless of the altitude.


Absolutely.

I do mine (Large whole Russets) to perfection at 425f in 45 minutes.
I use a poultry skewer to stick 4-5 holes in each.

 

[KenO]

I like taking red potatoes, slicing them up, and wrapping them in sealed foil boats and tossing them on the grill. Put in some butter, sea salt, and rosemary. Yum!!

 

[Drew99GT]

Here is an awesome recipe for baked potatoes, where you slice them and fan the potato out. It gives more surface area for crispiness but still retains the soft fluffy center. It also allows for more surface area for toppings!

http://themagicapron.wordpress.com/tag/potato-fans/

 

[cutter]

Nuke them. You're wasting gobs of power using an oven for a potato.