How To Properly Roast Potatoes With Hot Coals

Celebrated for their crunchy exterior yet delightfully fluffy center, roast potatoes are a simple culinary masterpiece. A solid side dish to roasted meats, or equally great alone dipped in mayonnaise. While the oven has reliably helped achieve crispy roasted potatoes, the air fryer and instant pot are also trusted alternatives. But does the journey of roasted potato preparation end there? Nope! Hot coals present yet another avenue to achieve these crunchy marvels.

If you're firing up the grill, why not make the most of the coals and cook your potatoes alongside the other dishes you're preparing? If you're looking to keep those potatoes nice and moist, it's best to wrap them in a double layer of foil before placing them above the hot coals. They will take just over an hour to achieve a delightful, tender texture. After this period, you can carefully unravel the foil, brush each potato in olive oil, and place the potatoes directly on the grill to crisp up.

It's a great way to achieve roast potatoes with a likeness to the oven-prepared variety. You save energy and add some extra smoky flavors in the process. Fire it up.

It's essential to begin with a potato variety that roasts well. Once you've decided on this, scrub the potatoes clean before wrapping them in foil. There's no need to par-boil the potatoes first, as they will steam inside the foil, which will add to their fluffy texture. There's also no need to peel them, as their skin will soften with the steam and then crisp up nicely once placed on the grill.

Another way to roast potatoes with hot coals is to use the ash. Ash roasting is a form of coal roasting, but instead of wrapping the potatoes in foil, they are placed directly amongst the coals. The potatoes will turn a dark black color from the soot and heat. Assessing when the potatoes are ready is easy, as you can simply push a knife through the skin to tell when they're tender. Once cooked, carefully peel open a potato and spoon out the filling like you would a kiwi fruit.

Although the ash roasting method does not produce a crunchy exterior like the other roasting technique, it does produce a super fluffy interior with slightly smoky and nutty notes. It is easily seasoned with butter and salt, too, if you're so inclined. If the grill is lit, why not try both and see which you prefer?

In 2016, Lyn Wadley and her team from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa found remnants of the earliest roasted vegetable. The charred remains suggested that the cooking had occurred some 170,000 years ago, in the middle Paleolithic era, which is also referred to as the Old Stone Age. Although the findings were not from a potato, it's a reminder that these ancient cooking methods are still relevant today.

The method of ash-roasting potatoes has an intricate history that transcends country lines and seas. This cooking method was particularly popular in the 20th century in postwar Brooklyn. Potatoes were a cheap food source, and lighting up a fire on the sidewalk was a quick way to keep warm and an easy way to prepare a filling snack. The potatoes needed no seasoning as the intense taste of wood smoke was deemed enough, and they were often wrapped in newspaper to prevent burnt fingers.

There are also references to ash-cooking potatoes in Polish literature, more than a century before they showed up on the streets of New York. "Practical Information for Household Use," which was published in 1775, notes that ash cooking produces a potato that tastes like chestnuts. Delicious.

Roasting potatoes with hot coals is a trusted historical method to relish these spuds. Whether you're aiming for a glorious, crunchy skin or prefer the ash-roasting technique, there are various ways to savor this experience.