Ask Dr. Potato

Q: How long after cooking a foil wrapped potato can it sit in a warmer? For instance, I would like to sell wrap cooked potatoes and would like to know how long after cooking them are they good for in the display style warmer case?

Q: I am making twice baked potatoes for dinner tomorrow. Can I bake them today and scoop out the meat, add fixings and then finish them off tomorrow?

Q: In a 10 lb bag of Idaho® russets I found a HUGE potato, bigger than any potato I've ever cooked! I don't want to cut it up, but I have no idea how long to bake it.  I measured it...it is more than 6 inches long, with a slightly more than 9-inch circumference. How long and at what temperature should I bake it at? Any special instructions?

Q: I found a previous post that Dr. Potato had a listing of top 10 best food blogger potato recipes, do you have a 2017 List?

Q: I cut off some black spots when peeling my russets, but when I boiled the potatoes a few more appeared. Why is that?

Q: Help, my mashed potatoes turned out watery once again. How can I remedy the situation without looking foolish in front of family and friends?

Q: What is the best temperature to bake a one-pound meatloaf and three Idaho potatoes? I only have one oven and I want to serve them both at the same time.

Q: We prepared a lot of russet potatoes for mashing by peeling first, then placing the whole potatoes in water before boiling. The potatoes turned pink, any thoughts on what caused this?

Q: I want to serve bake potatoes in my food truck. What would be the best and fastest way to cook them?

Q: Thank you, my Idaho mashed potatoes turned out white. I followed some of the tips on the Dr. Potato posts… Peel before cooking, Cut in half lengthwise and then put the flat parts on a cutting board. Then I cut into equal sized chunks and placed immediately into a bowl of water with concentrated lemon juice. Drained and added to a pot to put on the stove. I started with cold water and then boiled until a knife pierced the potatoes easily, about twenty minutes. Drained in a colander and added back to the pot and cooked a little more. Scraped the completely cooked chunks into a plastic bowl and put a clean tea towel over the top to keep air out and put the bowl in the refrigerator. I did all this the day before. When it came to Thanksgiving, I brought the potatoes out to room temperature, then microwaved. And, once thoroughly heated added to a ricer. The result was SMOOTH potatoes, no lumps and no gray hue to the potatoes! Finally, I folded in warm cream and melted butter. Put in a covered serving crockpot with some additional chunks of butter. I got raves about my Idaho russet potatoes this year. It’s going to be an annual tradition from now on.