# Grainy Potatoes ????



## ONG2 (Sep 22, 2010)

Folks,

Need some help here. My wife makes the most excellent potato salad that I have ever eaten. Occasionally the potatoes turn out grainy. Any idea why that would be? Is she over cooking the spuds?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Different kinds of potatoes will give you different textures.

Yukon golds, are creamier. Russets can be grainier or more mealy.

It also depends on the time of year. Most potatoes are 'wetter' in the fall just after harvest. They are 'dryer' in spring and summer due to dry storage conditions.

In the fall I've had such wet russet potatoes that they explode whether they are stabbed and microwaved, stabbed and baked, or even boiled. Those same potatoes have dried out a bit by spring and summer and they don't explode anymore. They boil up more grainy, more mealy and if baked, fluffy. Drier russets are good oven fried, fried in oil, and layered into a frying pan with butter and onions, or a hash of some type.

Over boiling them may make them fall apart. Cubes of potatoes over boiled will have lost their sharp edges. 

My guess is that the problem is seasonal.


----------

