At last I mastered the art of the perfect roast potato!

Since I discovered Roosters potatoes I only use them for roasting. They are brilliant

Always King Edwards - boil for about 5 mins, drain, then shake in the dry pan to roughen up outside (very important). Then straight into a hot roasting pan which already has hot melted goose fat in. Turn them over in the fat a few times and straight ito a hot oven (Gas Mark 6) for about 40 mins (depending on size of potatoes), turn over halfway through. Never fails. Enjoy!

Read this posting just in time before I start cooking dinner today, so will try some of these tips. DH does lovely crispy roasties but doesn't season them which I feel they need. Mine sometimes turn out well, though I'm often guilty of shoving them in the oven and going off to do something else and overcooking (burning?) them! I agree that cooling them and allowing the steam to dissipate after parboiling gets the crispiest result. I think King Edwards have the best flavour, but Maris Piper are lovely white fluffy spuds. Will report back after dinner . . . . .

oh has to be real butter, potatoes parboiled, drained and bashed about in pot with butter then into preheated tin with some oil. But in last few years have resorted to frozen ones as acceptable alternative, just struggle to find ones that are gluten free.

Maris Piper par boiled then roasted in goose fat, yummy.

You can’t beat Sharps Express tatties for roasting.

I'm drooling just reading these posts. Roasties are the jewels of the dinnerplate. My own are pretty good, but will try Pudding123's recipe. Sprouts are another matter.

I have frozen ones since I nearly set the kitchen on fire with sizzling hot fat! I blame Delia.

This year Was my turn to have everyone here for Christmas lunch so for the first time I tried something new as they all love roasties. I roasted the potatoes the night before till they were almost done, cooled them and left them in the fridge till the meats were cooked on Christmas Day. Poured some meat juices over them And blasted them in a very hot oven for 20 mins. They were absolutely gorgeous! ?

King Edwards or Maris Piper. Par boil 5-10 minutes then dry off. Hot oven, some meat juices, some oil and also some butter to brown them nicely. Always delicious - and I'm no cook.

Many years ago when my grandchildren were little (they are 48 and 50 now) they came to stay and as they were leaving they thanked me for “all those lovely roast dinners especially the roast potatoes”.
Now I am afraid I have to have frozen ones. M & S I find are the best.

Yes, I wondered that too

More or less the same as Pudding123 except while the potatoes were boiling I heated duck fat in a roasting tin in the oven at 200 fan to get it really hot. After tossing the par-boiled potatoes to fluff up and sprinkling with flour I cooked them for 30 minutes in the hot fat at 200 fan. Turned them over after 15 minutes for even colour. I then let them cool before freezing. While the turkey was resting on Christmas day I cooked the roast potatoes straight from the freezer on a flat tin (no added fat) at fan 200 for 30 minutes turning half way. They were definitely the best roasties I have ever cooked.

Phoenix, after boiling for 10 minutes how long do you put them in the oven for and what sort of temperature?

I boil till soft, plentifully oil the pan and the potatoes, and pepper them and sprinkle a veg OXO cube over them then put them in the middle of a 199 degree oven until they are the right colour.

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet so to speak,my roast pots were very good this year .I parbolled for 6 minutes ,drained roughed them up sprinked.with seasoned flour and rapeseed oil and when cool open froze them to keep them separate(a month.ago)then packed them and froze ready to use yesterday.They were Maria Pipers I put a little more oil on them ,a little more salt and cooked at 180 for 40 mins then for the last 20 minutes with about 50 grams of butter and turned heat up to 220 .They were brown and crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.Unfortunately I had put my sprouts in the pan with No water !luckily at the same time I prepared my potatoes I had done the same with some sprouts so the fresh ones.got chucked in the bin the pan went outside to hide the evidence .

I admire all your dedication. I used to do all that too. Till I discovered Auntie Bessie's roasties. All the work done for you and they taste delicious

King Edward's do make the best roast potatoes imo, but don't preboil for 10 minutes as they could turn to mush, 5 minutes maximum, drain and shake, using a colander fluffs them up.
Maris Piper are good too and can take a bit more preboiling.

Coat the potatoes with fat of choice - melted goose fat at Christmas, rapeseed oil which stands a high temperature the rest of the year.
Leave in fridge overnight or roast straight away, whichever is convenient. Shake the pan a few times as they start roasting and turn once.

Ive found that after parboiling and draining you have to let them go cold before adding them them to sizzling hot fat.
Having tried many fats, oil, goose fat etc I now use beef dripping as it gives a lovely savoury flavour. I keep a tub in the freezer for just this purpose.

Me too - its only taken me 50 years to work out that you have to have the fat VERY hot before putting in the spuds which have previously been dried off. I too was very excited at this achievement so well done you

Yesterday DH's roasties were a triumph. (He parboils the spuds for 5 mins, dries them, shakes them in salt, then roasts them in rapeseed oil.) Thank goodness we had guests: otherwise I might have scoffed the lot!

DIL reckons my husband’s roast potatoes are the best. He, shock!horror! does NOT par boil them! I know!
He cooks them in goose fat, having sprinkled them liberally with garlic and rosemary. Have to say they are very tasty.
I am just glad he wants to do them, saves me a job.

Our roasts didn't roast. When my husband died in 2016 I switched the aga off, to save oil, and only had it relit this January. Yesterday my daughter put a pie in the bottom, I already had the roasts in the top, and the temperature dropped so much they didn't brown at all. Kids were good about it, but they were just parboiled and hot

Yesterday DGD told me I always made the best roast potatoes, but then she is prejudiced in my favour!

I use any available main crop potatoes, usually home grown, this year I think I planted a variety called Rudolf for obvious reasons, but it can vary.

I peal and par boil them, bung a lot of goosefat in a tray, put it in the oven to really heat up (tray and fat), bring it out of the oven, bung the potatoes in and turn them in the fat and then put them back in a hot oven (180 degrees in a fan oven) for approximately an hour.

My cooking is usually 'guess and by god' and this year more so than usual as I am feeling slightly under the weather, but this years, despite some disorganisation I garnered the compliment, so they were clearly up to standard.

I used King Edwards, but agree Maris Pipers would be good too. Ok. I’m also lucky to have two ovens.

Christmas Eve
I parboiled for only 4 minutes.
Then I fluffed them up by shaking the pan with lid on.
Rolled them in warm melted goose fat and put them in a hot oven for 5 minutes. Let them cool, transferred to Pyrex disgh and put them outside overnight. (Well protected)

Christmas Day
An hour before meat was ready I heated up goose fat till sizzling, rolled the potatoes in it and cooked for 45 mins turning once.

That’s it.