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Re: [Phys-L] physics and potatoes



On 2015, Jan 14, , at 14:25, Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>
wrote:

Well appointed and fine restaurants do not serve baked potatoes
in foil. They do not cook them in foil and do not serve them in
foil. It is not good culinary practice to do so.

On 01/14/2015 04:24 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

Why???

Because it is a waste of time and effort, which are things
a well-run restaurant optimizes very highly. Also it is
a waste of energy resources and mineral resources.

Any benefit you could hope to obtain from the foil can be
obtained by other means, easier and better.

On 01/13/2015 12:30 PM, trappe@physics.utexas.edu wrote:

microwave cooked potatoes do not have the same texture as oven baked
potatoes.

OK, we should try to understand why.

BTW, note that it is not an all-or-nothing proposition.
It is common for people who care about such things to
preheat the potatoes (via microwaves or steam) and then
finish them in the oven. This gives two /controlled/
variables. In a restaurant setting, this greatly reduces
the /latency/ between ordering and serving, which is
another thing that they like to optimize.

Maybe its the moisture retention of foil which keeps oven
baked potatoes flakier.

All evidence available to me points in the other
direction:
a) Microwaved potatoes are sometimes compared to
steamed or boiled potatoes, which suggests too
much moisture, not too little.
b) People with a vested interest in getting it right
suggest slitting the potato to let moisture escape
during microwave cooking:
http://www.potatogoodness.com/all-about-potatoes/microwave-cooking-basics/
http://www.potatogoodness.com/potato-videos/how-to-bake-a-potato/

Also, there is the issue of time. The microwave oven
might be just too quick. There is evidence that the
texture is improved if you heat the spuds to 50 to 70
centigrade and hold them there for half an hour.
http://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/4439/3/Effect%20of%20preheating.pdf
That's an interesting rather technical paper, with lots
of references.

There are literally thousands of scientific papers on
the subject of potato texture:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=potato+texture+microwave
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=whole+baked+potato+texture+blanch+microwave

Even if restricted to "since 2014" there are hundreds
of articles.