Ask Dr. Potato

Q: My mashed potatoes come out grainy and runny. They were fine until I started using a kitchen aide mixer suggestions?

Q: After cutting my ribbon fries and dropping them in the fryer I have problems with the fries sticking together. What should the frying temperature be?

Q: I have a location near a complex of office buildings and want to open for breakfast to take advantage of the opportunity to serve customers walking by from the parking garages to their offices. Any suggestions for breakfast potatoes?

Q: I was just in Denver, restaurant hopping and I noticed the fries at several were shoestring cuts and very dark. They were crisp and delicious, but seemed overcooked to me. A couple of places said they used Idaho potatoes, what is going on?

Q: I will be using a commercial convection oven to bake 70 potatoes wrapped in foil.  Can you advise me on the length of time and what temperature to set the oven on?  I know that it will take less time but do not know what temperature to set the oven?

Q: I was wondering how retailers that are open extended hours or always have the lights on in the produce department can keep their potatoes from greening?

Q: We’ve been doing fresh cut French fries from Idaho Russet Burbank potatoes for years and because of the volume we are up to I was wondering if there is a better way to cut the potatoes than a small wall mounted tool that requires a staff worker with an extra strong arm to spend most of the day cutting one potato at a time. Save Save

Q: I recently attended a Media Communications workshop in Denver and the panel on Collaboration included a writer/restaurant reviewer and a restaurant publicist. They brought up a wonderful idea about putting together food or gift packages from your restaurant to deliver to radio or TV hosts in the hopes of getting a story across about your programs and operation. In other words, tempt them with food, rather than sending out blind press releases to 15 local stations at a time. Since you were in the audience too, I noticed that you were nodding your head positively and smiling and overhead you whisper "that really works."  Can you share your experience with this subject?

Q: My husband and I are eating about a pound of baked potatoes a day. With it being summer time I usually cook up about 10 lbs at a time and then keep them in the refrigerator. After cooking them in the oven (without foil as I've read on some of your other posts) and cooling them to room temp, does wrapping them in foil to put in the fridge keep them for any longer or should we just put in the fridge? Also how long will they keep for in the fridge either wrapped or unwrapped?

Q: My goal is to give customers a hot crispy, fresh out of the fryer, five-ounce portion of cooked frozen French fries. However, my employees must be serving more than that because when I do the math we always come up short for the projected yield.