SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
FoodCrumbles.com
June, 2021
The Science of Cooking Potatoes
+3 prep methods explained!
A potato is made up of mostly:
Water (∼80%)
Starch (∼15%)
+
When you cook a potato, you:
Heat it up
Gelatinization: starch granules absorb more and more water, swell up and at some point break!
--> the starch gelatinizes
NUGGET OF SCIENCE
FROM: hard, tough, crunchy
TO: soft, crumbly, almost creamy
POTATO STARCH TRANSFORMATION
Ready to Eat some Potatoes? Here's three (out of a gazillion) ways to prepare them (+ their science):
Use a Microwave!
01.
A microwave quickly cooks the potato through, thanks to waves traveling through the potato and heating up water molecules.
BEFORE
AFTER
THE SCIENCE
Microwaves are a type of electromagnetic radiation (just like UV-light), particularly good at heating up molecules through vibration.
Make a French Fry
02.
Choose a suitable potato and oil.
Cut and rinse or soak your potatoes (or don't).
Fry twice, or with pre-cooking .
Enjoy (with mayonaise, or ketchup, or just as is!)
SCIENCE of the POTATO
More important than almost any fry optimization you can make. Look for: - High starch - Low sugar
Don't underestimate the importance of choosing the right potato type!
Some examples: Russet, Agria, Bintje, Maris Piper, Victoria, and more!
THE SCIENCE of SOAKING
We tested: - No soak, no rinse - Rinse potato strips - Overnight soak in water
Conclusion: we couldn't find a difference. Better to optimize elsewhere!
Use the Air Fryer
03.
Fast and oil-free, can create a great crunchy fry, especially if: - Using frozen fries - Microwaving the potatoes first
Air fryers are great at: - Heating up quickly - Moving around air
Resulting in: - Rapid moisture removal -> thus crispy potatoes! - Short cooking times (compared to a regular oven)
THE SCIENCE
Of course, there are a lot of other options...
Mash them
Roast them
Bake them
Steam them
Boil them
And more
But for all, the science stays pretty much the same :-)!
But for all, the science stays pretty much the same :-)!
Learn more potato science @FoodCrumbles.com