Baked Potatoes

A Straight Jacket
A skewer and a karate chop

Delia's web page on how to cook jacket potatoes opens with the words 'Could there possibly be anyone in the wide world who doesn't drool at the thought of jacket potatoes with really crisp, crunchy skins and fluffy, floury insides and something lovely melted into them?', well yes, me! That is, until recently. I am now a convert, although drool may be going a bit far.

This is the story of that conversion...

A couple of days ago (it may be a week or so, but it doesn't matter) the thought occurred to me to make some soup and bang some in the freezer ready for lunches to come. What soup to make I pondered. Well sometime ago in a previous life my colleague and special friend, Wend, used to lunch together most days. On occasions we would walk into the local town centre to a little place that did a superb welsh rarebit. However on one occasion, presumably wishing to ring the changes we decided on soup and a sandwich. What's the soup of the day we enquired, jacket potato and bacon came the reply. Intriguing! We'll try that, and we did, and it was delicious. While paying the bill and swapping low denomination coins the proprietor let us into the secrets of this tasty soup (Wend, always insisted on paying her share to the nearest penny or that I was the one left slightly in profit – I may still owe her three pence).

This was the soup I decided to try and recreate...

Now, one key ingredient in jacket potato and bacon soup is of course jacket potato (aka baked spud) but not just any old jacket potato, as Delia said it has to have a really crisp, crunchy skin and fluffy, floury insides. So, to totally misquote the first line in Hannah Glasse's recipe for Jugged hare, 'first bake your potato'. And that dear reader is where my conversion began.

Which potato? It's got to be floury, waxy just wont do. As we know the Potato Council rate potatoes from 1 to 10 based on how floury they are, strangely the council recommends Estima and Marfona (quite low on the floury scale 4 and 3 respectively). Nigel Slater goes for the good old King Edward while Felicity Cloake edges her bets with a list (Maris Piper, King Edward, Estima, Desiree). But it doesn't matter who recommends what, it's what's available that counts. The potato god must have been smiling on me that day as I had an unprecedented three varieties to choose from. The King Edwards were dismissed as too small, the Estima and Saphire looked promising (yes Saphire with one 'p', apparently the two 'p' variety is purple in colour – purple potatoes, what ever next, red cabbage!). Slightly flat, stone like and just about the size of my delicate little hand, a couple of each found their way into my wire basket.

Pre-oven preparation: By pre-oven I really do mean oven and not microwave. I have in the past microwaved potatoes and I wonder if this has contributed to my previous disappointment with the jacket spud. Anyway, somewhere in my distant past I read that sticking a skewer through the potato helps the cooking by transferring the heat down the metal and into the core of the potato. I don't know if that is true or not. I believe you can buy dedicated bake potato spikes but why you would want to, I have no idea (says the guy with cupboards and draws full of gizmo’s and gadgets that seemed like a good idea at the time and have never seen the light of day after their first excited use). Whether you use a spike or a skewer I suspect they both work on the same principle. Whatever the advantages or other wise to the cooking process it certainly makes handling much easier so each of my potatoes were impaled length ways on its own skewer.

Prick or not to prick. Pricking the potato is meant to prevent it exploding. Although this was a precaution I used to take in my potato microwaving days I don't employ this technique for the oven bake. Like sausages oven baked potatoes should be un-pricked so the skin keeps all the steam and flavour in. I have never had an exploding potato but I reserve the right to change my mind about pricking should I ever have to spend time cleaning spud shrapnel out of my oven.

Now for some real controversy! Nigel and Felicity both go with salting a potato dampened with water. Sorry guy's you're wrong. I want a crisp, crunchy skin not a parchment wrapping. Delia and I go with salting an oiled potato. Unfortunately the oil of choice for Delia is olive. Sorry Delia you're wrong. Olive oil is from warmer climes, jacket potatoes are defiantly not. In fact I don't recollect seeing a single jacket potato seller on my government sponsored cruises round the Med. So if you must use a sexy oil go for a good rapeseed, if not, a simple veg oil will do (professionals, I ask you!). Did I just refer to two of my food writer heroes as Nigel and Felicity - don't tell me I'm turning into a Guardian reader.

Oiling and salting technique. Not withstanding my previous comments about gizmo's and gadgets my latest toy is a silicone pastry brush, it was freebie with a foodie magazine and I love it. I have taken to painting everything with it, dishes and tins, pies and even, quite recently a whole chicken. Needless to say my preferred method of oiling is to paint. I hold up the potato by it's skewer and give it a thorough artistic brushing. For the salting I like to sprinkle my chopping board with flakes of sea salt and roll the skewered potato on them, using the skewer as you would a rolling pin. Put a bit of pressure on so the flakes really stick to the skin.

The bake. Delia recommends, nay instructs the use of a lower but slower bake, where our Guardian duo both go for a higher oven. I'm with the higher team on this one and pre-heat the oven to 220C. When the oven is up to temperature in go the skewered potatoes. Word of warning here. If using skewers and a fan oven be careful not to inadvertently jab the end of the skewer between the slots at the back of the oven that are protecting the fan. It will certainly wake you up, believe me. So go in on the diagonal and rest the potatoes directly on the ovens wire shelf.

Timing. Timing is always difficult as it is obviously dependent on size and I suspect to a certain extent on variety. On this occasion my potatoes all weighed around 175g (yea, I did weigh them). Much in the same way that I add a set number of ladles full of stock to a risotto before dipping in with the testing spoon I start off by setting the oven timer for sixty mins. On the bleep I give them a gentle squeeze to test the outside for crispness and the inside for softness. I set the timer for another fifteen mins if they are not quite ready and repeat as necessary. On this occasion my potatoes took just one extra fifteen mins over the initial hour.

The onset of conversion. Pulling the jacket potatoes from the oven and extracting the skewers. I was over come with that comforting warm nutty smell of baked potatoes and had a stirring of the gastric juices. Think I'd better test one!

The burst. Jacket potatoes should be opened up as soon as possible on completion of the bake, even if they are going to be used for soup. Some go for simply halving the potato and presenting it cut side up – not a great look. Some go for the cross cut and squeeze but I've never had much success with this method – presentation wise or burnt finger wise. My method of choice is the Nigel Slater karate chop. This is a really satisfying act of violence allowing the steam of the potato to escape in one big whoosh which apparently aids in fluffing the innards and leaves the potato with a enticing rustic look. Place the victim on a chopping board and cover with a tea-towel then making the appropriate grunting noise, thwack.

The feed. If you are going to eat the potato in the traditional manner the baked and thwacked spud must be fed. As a new convert to the jacket potato this has to be butter, lots of butter, soft butter that can almost be flicked from your knife onto the spud from arms length (well perhaps a short arms length). I know people top their baked potatoes with all sorts of things from cheese to chilli but for the time being I'm happy with a straight jacket, buttered.

Conversion completed. Of the four now karate chopped potatoes I first selected a Saphire for the butter treatment. Soft, fluffy, buttery insides contrasting with the crisp, salty skin. Wow! Brilliant! Delicious! I'm a convert. To be honest the Estima wasn’t quite as good, just a bit on the waxy side but I will defiantly have a spud in the oven again soon, although potato god willing it will be something higher up the floury scale than the Estima.

The soup. The soup turned out really well. Some was sampled and some passed on to friends. At least one portion is now lurking in the freezer on standby. Not quite the quantity I'd initially planned on but next time I put the oven on to bake potatoes for soup I'll stick an extra one or two in as a special treat.

Note to self – get more skewers and butter... Lots more butter...