FOOD NEWS
For The Crispiest Potato Skin, Boil Them With Baking Soda
By Heather Newman
Attempting to create crispy potato skin can seem daunting, but like many things, crispy skins on your roasted potatoes come down to a little bit of kitchen science. Specifically, it all comes down to pH, and to create golden crisp potato skins, open up your pantry and bring out the baking soda.
When parboiling your potatoes (partial boil), add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to alkalize the water. Alkalized water breaks down pectin in the potato skin, allowing the starch to leach out of the potato's interior, resulting in a thick, starchy mixture that lingers on the outside of your potatoes.
The combination of starch and pectin will dehydrate and crisp up the potato skins once the potatoes are roasted in the oven. It’s important to note that different potatoes have different starch contents, and to maximize crispiness when roasting, pick a high-starch potato like the russet.