Buying and Storing Potatoes

Buying and Storing Potatoes - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. When picking potatoes at the grocery store, always go for firm, unblemished potatoes. Whether you are picking yellow, white-fleshed, red-skin, does not matter. You always want to make sure they look nice and healthy. An unhealthy potato will have a shriveled appearance and a slightly soft flesh, and you do not want to have that. Also, potato eyes. Now if your potatoes are still firm but have potato eyes, you can cut them out and that is OK. It will not affect you at all. But, you want to try and get rid of those first and then save the other ones for when you have company. The other thing is that you can use pretty much white-fleshed, yellow-fleshed, redskin potatoes as you prefer. However, some potatoes can get mealy, while other potatoes have a higher starch content and will stay firm in their shape. So, if you are baking or mashing potatoes you can use lower starch potatoes like russets or yukon golds. But for firmer potato recipes, like potato salad, I like redskin potato or these small yellow Dutch potatoes. They make delicious potato salad. And most important, when you are boiling potatoes, always add salt to your water. This is the only opportunity you get for potatoes to be flavored on the inside and that way you will have a delicious potato salad or mashed potatoes every time. When storing your potatoes always keep them in a cool, dark, dry place, whether that is at the bottom of your pantry or in a dark drawer, they always keep best in a cool, dark place. Hence the term “root vegetable”, underground, in the dark. They really prefer that no light atmosphere. And, while it seems like you could, you do not want to store your potatoes with onions. They also enjoy a cool, dark environment, but one of them actually gives off a gas that kills the other. So keep your potatoes and onions separate, but in a cool, dark area. That could just mean under one of your cabinets or in its own special place. But, either way, keep them off the counter.