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Potato: sort and cut before roasting

Before roasting potatoes, sort the tubers, check the weight before peeling and cut similar-sized pieces on a steady board, ready for the oven tray.

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Potato: sort and cut before roasting
Original illustration: a schematic drawing to help explain the subject.

Before putting potatoes in the oven, inspect them and check how the recipe expresses the weight. Sorting comes before cutting, and similar-sized pieces make cooking easier to watch. The oven follows those preparation steps, although it deserves some attention of its own.

Discard unsuitable potatoes

Discard green, heavily sprouted, shrivelled or badly damaged potatoes. On an otherwise sound tuber, generously remove the eyes and small damaged areas. Cooking does not guarantee removal of glycoalkaloids and cannot make an unsuitable potato fit to eat.

Do not eat a potato dish with unusual bitterness or a burning sensation. Do not deliberately taste a doubtful potato to check it. Keep whole tubers cool, dry and away from light.

Weigh at the stage the recipe specifies

For roast potatoes, measure the 1 kg before peeling. Weigh the whole tubers, then wash and prepare as instructed. A kilogram of already-peeled potatoes does not match this base.

On a stable board, cut similarly sized pieces and cut the largest again. The number of pieces per potato need not match. If a piece rolls or becomes difficult to control, stop cutting to reposition it.

Follow the recipe for cooking

The roast potato recipe specifies the oil, time and oven setting. Spread the pieces over the available tray space and check tenderness as they cook. These pointers do not automatically apply to sweet potato, which is a different ingredient.

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