Potatoes are among the most versatile kitchen staples, but they do have one notable downside: their peels. Sure, they’re nutritious and you can leave them on in some cases. But many recipes call for peeled spuds, a tedious task even with a peeler and especially wasteful if a paring knife must be used instead. So…
The Viral Potato Peeling Hack
This trick isn’t exactly a secret. Plenty of grandmas and restaurant prep cooks know it, and it goes viral pretty regularly on social media. Even if you’re not a seasoned cook, this method is effective and surprisingly simple.
1. Rinse off any dirt from your potatoes, and remove any scabs or blemishes.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
3. Use a sharp knife to score the potato lightly around its middle. Don’t cut into the potato itself; you just want to pierce the skin.
4. Carefully drop the potatoes into the boiling water.
5. Cook the potatoes until they’re tender all the way through; check with a wooden skewer or the tip of a paring knife.
6. Drain the potatoes and rinse them in cold water. For quicker cooling, you can leave them in the cold water for a few minutes.
That’s it! Once the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, the peels will slide off easily. They may or may not come off all in one piece, but if not, you will easily be able to pick off any stray bits of skin that are left.
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Weighing the Pros and Cons
There are upsides and downsides to this hack. To begin with, boiling your potatoes whole takes longer. Like … a lot longer. A pot of big russets can take 30 to 45 minutes, for example. But — and this is important — that’s unattended time, not hands-on like traditional peeling. You can simply let the potatoes do their thing while you continue with meal prep.
The hack works better with thick-skinned, old crop potatoes (those that have been stored for several weeks or months) rather than new potatoes or baby potatoes. Their thinner skins may not slide off as easily. Also, if your potatoes have lots of eyes or blemishes, the skin will tend to stick at those places and need to be peeled away with a fingernail.
That said, it’s still a great hack, especially if you don’t have a peeler. And while boiling your potatoes whole takes longer, an added benefit is that they’ll absorb less water while they cook. That makes for better potato salads and hash browns, and you can forget about watery mashed potatoes.
