Why do people wash their potatoes?

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Squawking Macaw said:
I used to always cook potatoes with their skin, until one day I ate green potatoes with the skin and got mild solanine poisoning. My body has reacted very badly to it ever since.
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Fortunate that you survived. A high enough dose is fatal without proper medical treatment.

Just as an FYI for everyone that reads this thread, never eat any green part of a potato for any reason, and never eat a potato where the eyes on the potato have started to grow roots.
 
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Manul Otocolobus said:
Fortunate that you survived. A high enough dose is fatal without proper medical treatment.

Just as an FYI for everyone that reads this thread, never eat any green part of a potato for any reason, and never eat a potato where the eyes on the potato have started to grow roots.
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How about when you get a potato chip that has a little green spot? I like to live dangerously.
 
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DankSmoker said:
How about when you get a potato chip that has a little green spot? I like to live dangerously.
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You're good. The dangerous alkaloids break down at chip frying temperatures. Frying is probably the only method where enough of it breaks down that a little green won't cause any harm. The alkaloids are surprisingly heat stable all the way up to ~340 degrees F, which is why, generally speaking, cooking a green or sprouted potato isn't going to do much for the poisoning risk.

The greening of potatoes is usually in response to excessive broad spectrum light exposure. It's basically the potatoes defense mechanism for being dug up. Animals can likely smell the alkaloids and know not to eat it even thought it is an easy target. This is why you always want to keep your potatoes in a cool, dark place. It's also the reason why potatoes were historically sold in burlap sacks, being opaque, they blocked the light and retarded the greening process.
 
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Hardline Traditionalist said:
I'm more shocked by how many people don't peel them, just boil or fry them with their skin.
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Boiled, fried, roasted and baked with skin on is fine. But there's a special place in hell for those motherfuckers that don't peel their potatoes before they make mashed potatoes. Who the fuck wants to bite into a nice spoonful of creamy, fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes only to bite into a chunk of skin. It's as bad as lumps.
 
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DankSmoker said:
It's not a proper potato wedge if it doesn't have the skin, you're making French fries, and French people are disgusting.
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There is evidence to suggest that French fries are actually a Belgian invention. "French" in this case might refer to how they are cut, like French cut or julienned potatoes or green beans.
 
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Grub said:
Boiled, fried, roasted and baked with skin on is fine. But there's a special place in hell for those motherfuckers that don't peel their potatoes before they make mashed potatoes. Who the fuck wants to bite into a nice spoonful of creamy, fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes only to bite into a chunk of skin. It's as bad as lumps.
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You say that like you've seen someone do that before, which terrifies me
 
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Hepativore said:
There is evidence to suggest that French fries are actually a Belgian invention. "French" in this case might refer to how they are cut, like French cut or julienned potatoes or green beans.
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That's good to know because I was being facetious. About eating french fries, not about the french being disgusting
 
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What the fuck are you people talking about? If we exclude stews/soups, there is nothing better on a cold day than some unpeeled boiled/steamed potatoes, with butter and salt.
 
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Just A Fat Round Bird said:
What the fuck are you people talking about? If we exclude stews/soups, there is nothing better on a cold day than some unpeeled boiled/steamed potatoes, with butter and salt.
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Lotsa mammals on earth will eat random root vegetables and pumpkins and shit but none of them specifically obsess over potatoes like humans do. Think it's in our DNA and was probablly key to humanity's survival. The WEF doesn't want anyone to have them.
 
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