# Shredded hash brown potatoes?????



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

What is the best way of way of making shredded hash brown potatoes? I can make great fried potatoes from cut-up leftover potatoes, but my hash browns made from fresh potatoes are glumpy masses of glue. What I do is peel fresh potatoes, shred them in a Cusinart, and rinse them under cold tap water. Then I fry them in a hot cast iron pan with about 1/4 cup of oil. They NEVER turn out light and flaky like from a restaurant. What am I doing wrong?


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## hassette (Jan 31, 2006)

You have to press out all the water before frying. Paper towels works well. Put some oil in a pan and when it is hot add the potatoes in a thin layer, cooking over medium heat, pressing down on them once in a while. Do not flip until they seem to hold together a bit and you are sure they are brown on the bottom.


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## gina kay (Sep 12, 2007)

CF, probably what you are doing wrong is leaving them wet after you rinse them. What I do is peel them, rinse them before I shred, pat dry, shred (I use a hand grater/shredder since I don't own anything any fancier), put paper towels on top and press down to absorb all moisture I can, then fry in very hot oil.


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## Christiaan (Mar 13, 2004)

Cook them first. Microwave in their jackets is easiest, although I usually peel and quarter. Grate them when cool. No more grey, gummy mass. For raw, grate them into ice water, let set for 1/2 hour, drain, rinse, wrap in an old towel and squeeze dry. Fry in lots of oil. Its much easier to use cooked potatoes.


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

Are you cooking them too hot maybe? I like to cook my potatoes, even on top of the stove, at a medium kind of heat. Too hot and they burn on the outside before the inside is crispy too.

And are you drying them out at all? The excess moisture might make them mushy.

I like to add in some onion in mine too. I don't add salt and pepper until they are done though.

Kayleigh


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## Anniebek (Oct 9, 2003)

Waffle house uses rehydrated dehydrated potato shreds.

Anniebek


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## Laura (May 10, 2002)

Most restaurants used reconstituted hashbrowns. Very few make them from scratch.

Years ago, my restaurant made hashbrowns from scratch. There are a couple of different methods.

Boil whole potatoes in the jackets to "not quite cooked all the way." Drain and cool them quickly. Do not soak in cold water. Peel and shred coarsely. Store them at almost, but not quite freezing tempurature.

Coarsely shread raw potatoes. Soak in salted ice water for 10 minutes, drain, rinse and pat dry. Lay in thin layer on baking sheets for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Place in container, store in freezer. Cook from frozen state.

To cook hashbrowns, place hashbrowns on preheated skillet or griddle, med.-med/high temp. Drizzle with melted shortening, bacon grease or oil. Let them brown, turn and keep turning until they are browned to just the way you want them.

My family loves homemade potato chips. Anything deep fried is a rare treat, but chips are awesome!

Thin slice potatoes, soak in ice water for 10+ minutes. Drain. Place on baking sheet and put in freezer for 1/2 hour. Preheat deep fryer to med/high. Fry chips a handful at a time. These cook quickly, don't turn your back. Drain on newspaper, serve in paper bags.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

I always just boil them with the skins on,let them cool,peel the skins off,grate them and fry them up.

Thats how I always did in the restaurant.

big rockpile


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## William G (Oct 11, 2006)

what size shred are you using, ihave the same problem when i use the fine shred. i also found that for me if i shred then soak the potatoes in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain them they cook up better and dont get the gray glue.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

William G said:


> what size shred are you using, ihave the same problem when i use the fine shred. i also found that for me if i shred then soak the potatoes in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain them they cook up better and dont get the gray glue.


Coarse

big rockpile


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Christiaan said:


> Cook them first. Microwave in their jackets is easiest, although I usually peel and quarter. Grate them when cool. No more grey, gummy mass. For raw, grate them into ice water, let set for 1/2 hour, drain, rinse, wrap in an old towel and squeeze dry. Fry in lots of oil. Its much easier to use cooked potatoes.


This is what works best for me too. I even make extra baked potatoes whenever I make them and pop the extras in the fridge. Then for breakfast I chop them up by hand (no cuisinart) and they cook up beautifully!


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## mamita (May 19, 2008)

I also give them a quick boil. just made some for hub's breakfast tomorrow. once cold, they grate well and fry light. and now I'm hungry.


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

Cabin Fever said:


> What is the best way of way of making shredded hash brown potatoes? I can make great fried potatoes from cut-up leftover potatoes, but my hash browns made from fresh potatoes are glumpy masses of glue. What I do is peel fresh potatoes, shred them in a Cusinart, and rinse them under cold tap water. Then I fry them in a hot cast iron pan with about 1/4 cup of oil. They NEVER turn out light and flaky like from a restaurant. What am I doing wrong?


 here's what we do as we make dozens of them to freeze and take them up to the college for the kid to eat with his other junk food.
peel, shred, keeping them under cold water all the time. we do a 10qt pot at a time. after they're all peeled, shreded and in cold water, we rince and drain them in a large colender(strainer) a couple times, it removes some of the starch.
we press them as dry as possible and put in a large bowl, even put some between a couple towels, get them dry, pour 2 large eggs that have been beaten over them with some garlic powder, salt,pepper, what ever anyone likes, mix the potatoe-egg, seasoning mixture to coat all the potatoes.. after the potatoes are coated, pour a cup or what ever is needed over the potatoes and mix all that to coat the potatoes with flour.
we then make paddies a little larger than a hamburger and fry them on both sides in about a half inch of hot oil.. keep the oil hot so the potatoes don't absorb the oil and have a greasy taste,but not so that it burns the oil, we even season the frying oil. the kid and his room mates eat a couple hundred every yr.

we figure he's getting some protein from the eggs, some grain from the flour and some carbs from the potatoes, hope it's better than potatoe chips for them.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

They'll come out perfect if you rinse them well first. It's the starch that makes them glump/gluey. Just shred them into a colander and rinse real well. Let them drain for a few minutes, then fry in hot oil.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Karen, this is what I do...except maybe the oil isn't hot enough. WIHH doesn't like me splattering her clean stove top. But hey, I'm the boss of this ranch! ("What dear, mop the floor? I will get on that right away....okay?")

And the rest of you are more or less saying that if I want hash browns in the morning, I better start preparing for them the night before.....shucks!


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## mamita (May 19, 2008)

YES...prepare prior! LOL! and NO..hubby has no clue his taters are on his plate with so much prior thought.  spoiled man.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

The oil has to be hot to get them browning and crisping up right away. You want to brown the potatoes; you don't want to slow cook them so they release more starch. If you do, you end up with mashed potatoes. 

Just get the stove cleaned up before WIHH gets home, and she'll never know! Besides, a good ol' plate of fried hashbrowns take precedence over a clean stove anytime!


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## grayrecliner (Jul 13, 2007)

SIL used to work for a small town restaurant. She said that at the end of the day the owner/cook took the leftover mashed potatoes (real ones) and packed them tightly in a bread tin and put in the refrigerator. The next day they grated them for hashbrowns. I've had them and they are excellent. Never tried making them but I would think they would crumble vs. grate but they always seemed to be shredded.


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## Ping (Mar 15, 2008)

I am a hugely picky hashbrown person. I agree with the others that the best/easiest way is to use leftover baked potatoes. I especially like to include the skins--crispy tator skins YUMMMMM! 

BUT I do prefer the taste of raw potato hashbrowns (yes, there is a difference). They are harder to make. I have never rinsed mine so don't know if that helps or not. I just grate my raw potato and fry it. The key is the oil must be hot (splattering hot) and you can't turn them until they're brown around the edges and are sticking together. If the oil isn't hot enough, they just absorb it and turn into goo. If you turn them too soon, they get all gooey too.


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## RichieC (Aug 29, 2007)

Get as much liquid out as possible, and add a tiny bit of flour.


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## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

I use the reconstituted dried ones as well... it's a taste preference. I've tried making them lots of different ways, and the dried ones from costco taste the best


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## saremca (Jun 19, 2008)

Christiaan said:


> For raw, grate them into ice water, let set for 1/2 hour, drain, rinse, wrap in an old towel and squeeze dry. Fry in lots of oil. Its much easier to use cooked potatoes.


This is how I make mine as well. Soaking them first gets a lot of the gluey starch out and they're much nicer in texture when they're fried.


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## Wildwood Flower (Aug 26, 2006)

Seems to me that you all are working too hard. I make hashbrowns all the time and it's easy and they turn out perfect. I use a large iron skillet, or non-stick fry pan. 

What I have found is that the secret is not to fry too many at once--1 or two potatoes at a time. 

Restaurants have a grill--so they can be spread out--same idea.

I just put some olive oil in the pan--just enough to coat and DIRECTLY grate a raw (UNPEELED) potatoe into the pan right onto the hot oil. Sometimes I put a chopped onion (and/or fresh garlic) on top of that. 

*DO NOT STIR*. Just wait until it browns on one side. Flip the whole thing, and brown it on the other. That's it!


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

I like mine made with cooked potatoes, then shred. I just cook them whole...shred skin and all.


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## Dandish (Feb 8, 2007)

DW said:


> I like mine made with cooked potatoes, then shred. I just cook them whole...shred skin and all.


I'm also in this camp, boil in their jackets just until barely fork tender - cool refrigerate over night is very good), shred, fry up. Yum.


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## oldmania (Jan 25, 2007)

They just don't taste the same if they are cooked first. It is best to use older potatoes, as the new ones have too much water in them. I peel potatoes, rinse, dry thoroughly and then shred - don't rinse shredded potatoes, that just adds moisture back in. If potatoes seem to wet, put between paper towels to get out as much moisture as possible. Fry in thin layers - you can separate into sort of patties - in hot oil - turn only when browned. Delicious!


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## insocal (May 15, 2005)

I always make potatoes 'n' eggs, which is just hash browns with scrambled eggs cooked into them. I peel and grate a potato or two, melt some lard in a cast iron skillet, dump in the grated potato, and fry on med low heat until crisp on one side (sometimes I put a lid on the pan to help hold the heat on), and then flip and fry the mass on the other side.

I never have eaten them as just hashed browns but you sure could.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

let them soak i water for a bit, then rinse to remove some of the starches. This will make them more crispy. Works the same for french fries.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Note to self: Do not attempt to shred cold, cooked potatoes with the Cuisinart....they will become "mashed" potatoes. Next time, use a hand grater!


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## saremca (Jun 19, 2008)

I never knew there were so many ways to fry potatoes! 



> Note to self: Do not attempt to shred cold, cooked potatoes with the Cuisinart....they will become "mashed" potatoes. Next time, use a hand grater!


Yeah, I've done that before too.


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## Quint (Nov 12, 2004)

I just shred them fairly coarsely rinse and then dry them well. The secret to cooking them is to spread them out in a thin layer and leave them alone. Don't be constantly turning and messing with them or you end up with a mushy mess. When they're good and brown turn them over and finish.

Another issue is oil. Regular vegetable oil I've found doesn't do that well. A combination of shortening and butter works pretty good.

When I worked in restaurants we used either baked potatoes shredded so they cooked fast or in most places frozen hashbrowns. The frozen ones came in large sheets that you would set out and let thaw. Once they thawed you had a big bag of hashbrowns. Cooking them frozen was a nightmare and those who didn't leave the next shift with a rack full of thawing hashbrowns were harshly dealt with. Like all of our potato products they were from JR Simplot. Really good hashbrowns.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I'm not sure what you art looking for CF. I think you are wanting to remove as much starch as posible before frying. Shred them and give them a good soak the night before, dump the water and rinse them and add more water before going to bed. Next morning. drain rinse and fry. If you want to make patties: Drain rinse and salt, wait a bit then pick up in hanfulls, squeeze out excess moisture and fry in patties. 
It is the excess starch that makes your taters soggy and gloppy. Wash it out.


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## dancingfatcat (Jan 1, 2008)

I too, bake extra potatoes and use them to make hashed browned potatoes the next day. I grate them right onto the skillet, skin and all, it only takes a few minutes. This makes for quick and easy cooking, add onion and what ever else you want, yummy. 

We do this when we go camping, feels like you really did alot when really you did'nt.Our friends are always amazed when I offer them some, they are like " wow, you made hashed browns!!! sure I'd love some". It's a great hit.


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## sage_morgan (Dec 18, 2005)

we had extra hash browns one day and put some in a ziploc bag. bleah. gooey. neh. 

any hints about saving the raw taters left over? besides just cookin them up.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

sage_morgan said:


> ....any hints about saving the raw taters left over? besides just cookin them up.


We usually put the raw potatoes we don't use back into the potato sack.


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## Ashtina98 (Aug 10, 2007)

If you are talking about raw shredded potatoes, I think putting them in a bowl of water then putting them in the refrigerator would help, never done it for more than a couple hours but I'm sure it would work.


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