Baked Potato Schools of Thought

A few posts ago, I wrote about grilling steaks.

Now, what goes well with a steak? If you are on a
low carb program, then you might select a
watercress salad and some fried butter. Many
more, however, would opt for a Baked Potato.

My research has revealed that there are many schools of
thought on how to prepare Mr. Baked Spud.

No one temperature is universally accepted. Some cookers
suggest you go as high as 500 degrees.

Then there is the foil - no foil debate. The no foil group
seems to have an edge here. They suggest that a potato
in foil is, in fact, not baked, but steamed.

In the matter of whether or not to poke holes in the tater,
those in favor of poking seem to be the majority.

Time of baking is another area where little agreement can be
found; sixty minutes seems to be the average.

Microwavers are also a vocal group, but again they are sometimes
rudely put down, once again for producing a steamed potato.

All that said, I will now give my suggestions.

1. Pick the right spud. I suggest Russett or Yukon Gold.

2. Wash real well with a veggie brush.

3. Don't poke holes in that tater. Pokers suggest that this
is done to keep the potato from exploding. I have never seen
that happen.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put potato in (no foil) the oven and cook
for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and cook 30 more
minutes. The beauty of this method is that the tater can stay in the
oven for a lot longer than 30 minutes and it will still be just right
when you are ready to have it join the other dinner items.

***One disclaimer here. I use this method to cook average size bakers.
My supermarket sometimes has baking potatoes for sale that are the
size of a paving stone. I don't know if my method would work with these.

Your comments are welcome.