The Food Lab: How to Roast the Best Potatoes of Your Life

Summary by Krater

J. Kenji López-Alt demonstrates how to make extra crispy roast potatoes using baking soda in the boiling water and infusing olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

From the video

Answers: How do you make the crispiest roast potatoes?

• Parboiling potatoes with baking soda
• Infusing olive oil with garlic and rosemary
• Roughing up potatoes for extra surface area
• Roasting potatoes at high heat

Ingredients

• 1 ounce salt
• 2 quarts boiling water
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• handful fresh rosemary
• 3 cloves garlic
• freshly cracked pepper
• parsley

What it concludes

• Adding baking soda to the boiling water makes the potatoes' cellular glue break down faster, resulting in more surface area and higher crunch.
• Infusing the oil with garlic and rosemary allows you to get the flavor into the potatoes without burning the aromatics.
• Tossing the drained potatoes thoroughly creates a pasty, mashed potato-like layer on the exterior of each chunk for maximum crispiness.