Where's my potato jacket?

Ah, so the drying has to happen when they are fresh? This thread has made me long for an old fashioned jacket potato. I am going to see if any local farmers sell them, but I might have to wait until later in the year.

I think the trouble is Doodledog most supermarket spuds have been washed and sometimes they’re stored for a while, then sold in plastic bags.
My friend has an allotment I help out with, he’s growing King Edward’s, they will be lifted, left to dry out on the ground and stored in hessian sacks as Gin said. We’re lucky to have access to some of them.

I always take all of my veg out of the plastic, as I have to buy potatoes from the supermarket at the moment I put them into a hessian bag.
We buy our main winter potatoes straight from the farm that grows them, store in the shed, they are best for baking.

That’ll be it Gin. Would drying and storing supermarket ones in sacks do the same, do you think?

My mother had an ‘All Night Burning Fire’ which had a big ash pan where my sister and I would cook potatoes, brush off the ashes, add salt, pepper and butter and we had a delicious supper. No TV, just the radio to listen whilst we sewed, embroidered or knitted. Reading a book was wasting time! It was a really cosy room that I can see in my minds eye with great clarity.

Potatoes were either home grown or bought by the sack and stored in the shed. The skins were much tougher than those sold today, usually in a plastic bag. My Dad always said you had to harden the skins off before storing or else they would sweat and go mouldy so they were left in trays to dry first.

The potatoes they sell as ‘baking potatoes’ are usually the wrong sort. You need floury potatoes, not waxy ones, and it makes a huge difference. It also matters that you cut a cross in them when cooked, and squeeze them to let the steam out. Cutting them in half traps the moisture inside and keeps them wet.

Having said all that, you’re right that the childhood ones were so much better. Probably as the potatoes would have been seasonal ones, rather than imports or forced ones.

Drool!
I call them baked potatoes and only see Jacket potatoes on menus, thought it was a US thing.

I stab them with a fork and pop in the oven at Gas Mk6 for an hour or longer depending on size. They always come out crispy. Lovely with lashings of butter and cheese. Mum used to do them sometimes for lunch in the school holidays. A real comfort food. I usually only do them in the winter so the heat from the oven warms the kitchen and is not wasted.

AskAlice

The best ones I ever had were the home-grown King Edwards when I was a child. Dug-up and dried in the sun and then stored with the dried earth still on them. They were probably full of lead as we were only about 100 metres from the main road in Inner London, but nothing I've eaten since (even from farm shops and farmers' markets) has tasted as good.

Germanshepherdsmum, we had them baked in the bonfire ashes on Guy Fawkes night and just brushed off the ashes before eating them - another dose of pollutants, no doubt!

Me too on bonfire night, they were wrapped in foil, but it got dislodged so there were ashes and burnt bits, ate the whole potato, good memories.

I’ve always called them jacket potatoes. I start off in the microwave and finish in the oven . However my DD does hers in the airfryer on roast mode and they don’t take as long as in a conventional oven.

My dad used to do them for us as a treat with the Sunday lunch. They were called jacket potatoes. My dad was a good cook.

I stick a metal skewer through mine wrap in aluminium foil and bake for about 75 minutes. If I want a crisp skin I leave off the foil.

I just wash the potatoes, pierce the skin with a knife a couple times then microwave for about 10 minutes. Then put them in the oven to finish off. Never rub them with oil or salt. They usually come out crisp. We often have sausages with them so they all go in the smaller of my ovens.
Like you we always thought they were a real treat when we were children. Often cooked slower, so that probably helped crisp them and improve the flavour.

The ones I loved were thrown on the bonfire in the 1940's. Then out came the butter and salt, sometimes self churned from the cream at the top of a bottle of milk. Tasted delicicious, crispy skins and fluffy insides.

The best ones I ever had were the home-grown King Edwards when I was a child. Dug-up and dried in the sun and then stored with the dried earth still on them. They were probably full of lead as we were only about 100 metres from the main road in Inner London, but nothing I've eaten since (even from farm shops and farmers' markets) has tasted as good.

Germanshepherdsmum, we had them baked in the bonfire ashes on Guy Fawkes night and just brushed off the ashes before eating them - another dose of pollutants, no doubt!

The skin is much harder and more crispy if it’s baked in the oven. But that takes an hour and uses a lot of fuel - it’s no wonder a lot of people microwave them. However I have a combi microwave so I can microwave and oven bake them at the same time - about 15 mins for 2 big ones.

Always called them jackets never baked
I had one out the other day it was small and the skin was nearly back and inedible it was on a tea plate with a bit of lettuce and a pat of butter £8 something never again

Germanshepherdsmum

They have always been baked potatoes to me. In my childhood they were cooked in the ashes of the fire so the skins weren’t eaten. Nowadays I cook them in the microwave so that I can eat the skins - they say all the goodness is just under the skin.

I always called them baked potatoes too- I thought jackets was an American import.

Rub the skin with salt and butter- I used to make legendary baked potatoes for my kids but they took ages to cook. I don't have a microwave so haven't made them for ages.

I agree that potatoes are now what they were- even the ones I get from the local greengrocer are rubbish. I blame Bexit.

Our greengrocer is a great source of baking potatoes - washed but so much more tasty than those from the supermarket. All locally grown.

Germanshepherdsmum

They have always been baked potatoes to me. In my childhood they were cooked in the ashes of the fire so the skins weren’t eaten. Nowadays I cook them in the microwave so that I can eat the skins - they say all the goodness is just under the skin.

The key is the color of the jacket or skin of the potato and they are never small. They are like a thick long almost rectangular rock in shape and always DIRTY .. Never pre-washed and the color is a cross between dirty camel tan and a brownish hue.

Check out the farmer´s market(s) .. Speak to the vegetable mongers.

BigBertha1

The big ones we buy in the market with earth still on them have a nice thick skin. I rub a little olive oil on them for crispyness.

I do same. I never purchase pre-washed potatoes with a lightish yellow skin.

Always purchase nice thick skinned potato with "earthy soil" still on the skin.

I use Extra virgin olive oil - rubbed on the outer jacket as well.

I always buy dirty potatoes which are a cross between a dirty camel tan color and a brownish hue or tone.

I buy mine at the farmers market.

They have always been baked potatoes to me. In my childhood they were cooked in the ashes of the fire so the skins weren’t eaten. Nowadays I cook them in the microwave so that I can eat the skins - they say all the goodness is just under the skin.

I used to love the smell of baking potatoes, I dont know which variety they were as potatoes were known as reds or whites.

I agree with you having tried different varieties and cooking methods I cannot get them to be the same as in childhood.

My daughters microwave theirs and they never taste quite right to me. I wash the potatoes, pat them dry. prick all over with a fork then rub them all over with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. For a potato about the size of a fist I cook them at 180 for 90 minutes. The skins are just right, not soft but not sharp enough for a DIY tonsillectomy. To digress a little Jersey Royals don't taste the same these days. Blame the potatoes and not us.

The big ones we buy in the market with earth still on them have a nice thick skin. I rub a little olive oil on them for crispyness.