During one of the last episodes, Phil talks about having a jacket potato for dinner regularly when he was a kid. He shares his top tips for ensuring crispy skin, and how to reduce the amount of time spent in the oven cooking potatoes with a teaspoon.
“Two things to remember, yes,” said Phil, “they take a little energy — and Alice [Beer, consumer editor] He’s already told me about cooking it twice. [But] You can pop them in the microwave and bake them in the oven for a crispy skin.
“When you fill them up and put them back in the oven, you don’t have to turn on the oven, you can finish them under the broiler to cut down on energy.
“Now, the thing that also has to be said is – always, always, always use a sharp knife and cut the outside of the potato [before you cook it] Because they will explode the other way.
Sometimes, if you start potatoes in a cold oven and… [the temperature] It gets hotter, baking the skin so badly that it stretches and bursts. Not all the time, but it happens, so I always do [score] With them.
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“Can you do that with anything you put in the oven?” asked Holly Willoughby. “Yes, with root vegetables,” Phil said. “Things like lamb, lamb bone, heat travels through the lamb. But the metal definitely does.”
Before inserting the handle of a teaspoon into the potato jacket, you can blast the potato in the microwave to reduce the cooking time even further – remember not to have a teaspoon in the potato if you are microwaving as this is a health and safety hazard.
Microwave ovens are the cheapest kitchen appliances to use in terms of energy use, costing just a penny for three minutes based on the operation of a 700-watt microwave.
Waitrose suggests using both the microwave and oven to cook jacket potatoes, and if done in conjunction with Phil’s spoon hack, it can take just 20 minutes to get crispy, fluffy potatoes in the oven.
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But if you need to wrap the potatoes in foil when placing them in the oven, then not one of the chefs advises doing so.
“I see a lot of people use foil to wrap potatoes, but this is a big no-no and causes soggy skins!” Chef Isaac Taub said today.
The foil retains moisture and steams the potatoes, resulting in a “boiled” taste and texture. In addition, without the use of foil, the skin will turn out to be extra crispy and tasty.
