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Preparing
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Potato
Solanum tuberosum · Tuber
14 varieties40 pairings
The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a starchy, swollen underground stem tuber of a nightshade plant — bland and faintly earthy raw, but transformed by cooking into one of the most versatile and important staple foods on Earth, boiled, steamed, baked or roasted across nearly every cuisine.
Picking a good onedrag
Freshly liftedSprouting and green
Cured and dormantThe keeper — roast, mash, fry, bake, anythingBuy the sack
SkinSet firm, dry, matte
FleshFirm right through
EyesDimpled but dormant
SmellFaint, almost nothing
What to look for, from freshly lifted to sprouting and green.
What one gives you
75%
Usable yield
213 g · peel and eyes out
284 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
Not below about 4°C: starch turns to sugars, so it fries, roasts and bakes dark and bitter; at 1–2°C flesh browns inside. Warming helps, not fully.
Humidity
95–99%
drier and it shrinks and bruises
Airflow
Steady
sealed and warm, the core goes black
It gives off none, but it listens
An apple in the sack can hold sprouting back; heavy exposure brings the sprouts on and over weeks darkens a fry — leave it out of the frying sack.