Why add salt to potato water?
I add salt to pasta water in order to reduce the stickiness caused by starch. However, I've never seen potatoes stick together. Why add salt?
Best Answer
Salting the water in which you cook starches (pasta, rice, potato) is an effective way of enhancing the flavour of the finished product - boiling starches absorb salt well (which is why adding chunks of potato to an overall salty stew will lessen the apparent saltiness of the dish.
But salt does other things. When I am making roasted potatoes, I parboil them for 5 minutes before drying and roasting them in oil. if you divide them into two batches and boil one half in unsalted water and the other half in well salted water (1tbsp/2 quarts water), the salted potatoes will brown and crisp much better than the unsalted ones. I'm not sure why this is, but I would encourage you to try it because it's amazing to see.
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Quick Answer about "Why add salt to potato water?"
“Salting the water not only seasons the potato, but it also allows it to boil to a hotter temperature. This in turn cooks the potatoes' starch more thoroughly, resulting in a more creamy texture [for mashed potatoes],” says Sieger Bayer, Chef and Partner at The Heritage.Why do you put salt in the water when cooking potatoes?
As with pasta water, there's a reason to liberally salt the water in which the potatoes will cook: As the starches in potatoes warm up, they open up and absorb water (and salt if you season the water). When they're finished cooking, the cells close off.Does salt water make potato soft?
When a potato chip is put into salt water, the potato cells become flaccid (soft and floppy). This is because there is a higher concentration of water molecules inside the potato cells than outside.Does salt water boil potatoes faster?
This in no way means that your water will boil faster, however, which is a common misconception among cooks. On the contrary, this simply means that salted water will become hotter, and your potatoes or pasta will ultimately cook faster will make your food taste better.Why do potatoes need so much salt?
The reason for this is that potatoes are very bland, and therefore require a lot of salt to taste "potato-y." This makes them very hard to over-salt, so they become an ideal ingredient to add to over-salted foods to dilute the salt.Syracuse Salt Potatoes - New Potatoes Boiled in a Salt Brine
More answers regarding why add salt to potato water?
Answer 2
First, as a physicist I would argue that:
-salt RISES the boiling point of water. Every student knows that.
-by osmosis, being the water salty results in a lower content of water in the potato. That is, the potato absorbs LESS water while cooking (there are some videos in YouTube showing this fact.) With less content of water, potatoes become crispier after roasting.
Answer 3
To add flavor. Add some butter and cream afterwards when mashing- delicious
Answer 4
If you reduce the amount of water you use and increase the amount of salt, the result will be salt crusted potatoes, with added flavor and sweetness.
Answer 5
Pasta absorbs boiling water as it cooks, so the salted water actually seasons it. But whole unskinned potatoes absorb little if any water when they cook/boil, so they do not get seasoned. Although I have no data, I suspect that neither the small increase in boiling temperature nor the tiny bit of osmosis resulting from salting the water would be of much consequence. However, cut and/or peeled potatoes might indeed be seasoned somewhat, depending on how much cooking water they absorb.
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