If you are like me, you used to be a bachelor who didn’t know a whole lot about cooking. I tried baking a potato myself for the first time and it came out hard as a rock (well as a raw potato anyway). I tried microwaving it for several minutes and got nothing, nothing edible. I finally looked up recipes on how to bake a potato on the internet. Everything I found was confusing. Everyone had a different way to bake them. I finally tried one of the recipes. it was ok. I changed it a bit to fit my taste. Now I am going to share my findings with you.

You will need:

1. Regular baking potatoes - I usually buy the bag and bake a whole bunch of potatoes at the same time. The leftovers are great refrigerated and eaten cold later in the week. They are like a good lasagna. They will taste better several days later (probably not longer than a week though).
2. Butter or margarine - Butter is of course better tasting, but if all you have in the house is margarine, that is ok.
3. Sea Salt - Sometimes called Kosher Salt. If you don’t have this, regular table salt will do. Again, Sea Salt will taste better.

Directions:

1. Set your oven to Pre-heat at 425 degrees
2. In a bowl melt a few tablespoons of butter in the microwave. How much? Well, the more potatoes you bake the more butter you will need. Just guestimate. If you need more, you can always nuke some more.
3. Rinse the potatoes under running water making sure there’s no dirt or grime left on the potatoes. Pat them dry (at least shake the worst of the water off the potato. Butter doesn’t stick to water).
4. Roll each potato in the butter, making sure every bit of the potato is covered. Place into a glass baking dish. (I usually line the dish with aluminum foil. This keeps the sea salt from melting to the glass which can be difficult to get off. It also makes for easy cleanup.)
5. Sprinkle sea salt over the top of each potato. How much? This is really a trial and error thing. It depends on your taste. I say put a little more than you think. If it is too salty when you go to eat them, you can always knock some of the salt off before you take a bite.
6. Turn all the potatoes over and sprinkle sea salt on the other side.
7. Your oven should be at temperature by this time. Put the dish with the potatoes in the oven and set your timer for 60 minutes. As long as your potatoes are not super large, it should not take longer than this.
8. When your timer goes off, pull the dish out. Take a steak knife and stab each one. There shouldn’t be any give when you stab them. If the knife goes in and comes out easy, they are done. If you have to really use force to make the knife go in, they are not done. cook them for another 20-30 minutes.

That is how to bake a potato. Easy isn’t it.

I like my potatoes loaded with butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon bits (green onions if I have them), but each person has their open preference. Eat them the way you like them.

Enjoy your baked potatoes.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 10:01 am and is filed under Cook (Recipes). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.