Simple hacks to remove starch from potatoes | The Times of India (2024)

FAQs

Simple hacks to remove starch from potatoes | The Times of India? ›

Starch is the sticky liquid released while cutting or slicing the potatoes and the best way to get rid of that is by soaking chopped or sliced potatoes in a large vessel of water. Make sure the water is cold, washing it once or twice helps in removing the scratch on the upper layer of the flesh.

Rinse and soak in cold water

Much of the surface starch can be washed away with a quick rinse in cold water. All you need to do is cut your potatoes and rinse them under cold water. For better results, soak the potatoes in a bowl of cold water for a few hours.

If you're pressed for time, the slightly sticky, cut potatoes should be soaked for a minimum of 15 minutes. However, a longer soak time may allow more starch to be removed. So, if you can prep the fries ahead of time, a few hours of soaking can help make them even crispier.

Final answer: When a piece of fried potato is eaten, it is broken down into smaller molecules in the mouth and small intestine. Enzymes in saliva and pancreatic amylase help digest the starch in the potato into maltose, which is further broken down into glucose by maltase in the small intestine.

Vinegar causes the potatoes to form a thin crust that further helps in retaining their shape. Vinegar increases the acid pH levels of water which further helps the potato just like when you add a little salt to the water while boiling eggs.

For extra-crusty exteriors on our roasted potatoes, we add a dash of baking soda to the water as they parboil. The alkaline environment breaks down pectin in the potatoes' cell walls, causing their surface layer to fall apart and release starch that forms a pasty film.

Starch rich potatoes usually turn soft and crumbly, while frying or baking. So, if you are making delicacies wherein you want the potatoes to be crispy and crunchy, then removing starch is the best way to keep your wafers, fries, crispy potatoes, hash browns crisp and delicious.

Covering in water helps the potato from turning a dark color. Adding salt to the water to form a brine mixture may seem helpful and can impart a flavor to the potato strips, however, salt is a major contributor to the fry oil breaking down prematurely, so I don't recommend it.

If you're prepping with smaller pieces, don't soak for more than 12 hours. This trick is handy, but it'll only work for about 24 hours — so don't prep too far in advance. After too long, they'll start to take on water and may lose their structure when you go to cook them.

Potato starch is a white substance starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain starch grains (leucoplasts). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed; the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. The starch is then washed out and dried to powder.

Should you rinse starch off potatoes? ›

Rinsing potatoes helps remove excess starch, so it is recommended to rinse the potatoes before cooking. To ensure even more starch is out of the way, it's recommended that they even be quickly rinsed after boiling. We recommend using hot water for rinsing after boiling and cold water prior to boiling.

When you chew carbohydrate-rich foods, carbohydrase enzymes, such as amylase in your saliva, break down starch into sugar to give us the energy we need. Then protease enzymes in your stomach break down the proteins that will build new cells and repair damaged tissue.

More starch is removed from a cut potato than a whole peeled potato, because a greater surface area is exposed on cut potatoes. Soak them in cold water for as long as a few hours to remove more starch than by rinsing alone. You'll notice cloudiness and starch at the bottom of the bowl.

The baking soda boiled with baking soda added was dense, and had a bit of a runny feel to them. The winning method is cooking your potatoes with baking soda, with a splash of vinegar added! These had the most flavor and they were the fluffiest, creamiest mashed potatoes!

Undercooking or Overcooking The Potatoes

Potatoes are the main ingredient, so it's essential that they're cooked just right. Don't let them cook long enough, and you'll be left with firm, crunchy potatoes — not a texture potatoes should ever take on in this dish. Cook them too long, and you'll have mushy potatoes.

Excess starch can make potatoes gummy or gluey.

Rinsing potatoes with cold water prior to boiling helps remove excess starch. Rinsing with hot water immediately after boiling can remove even more starch. Cutting potatoes before boiling does remove excess starch.

Soak those spuds

Potatoes are also loaded with starch, and too much of this good thing makes potatoes taste gummy, according to Potato Goodness. Fortunately, soaking helps with this conundrum as well, and Potato Goodness advises using cold water instead of hot water to avoid a reaction with the starch.

Grating and rinsing the potato will only remove some starch from the cut surfaces. Using warm or cold water in the rinse will not make any appreciable difference. However, multiple rinses or soaking will help reduce the starchiness, if so desired.

Potato tubers are good sources of nutrients. Sweet potato contains more carbohydrate, vitamin C and minerals than Irish potato. In the food processing methods employed, it was observed that boiling retains more carbohydrate than frying while frying retains more vitamin C and minerals than boiling.