"the recognition of roast potatoes at home and abroad"

June 21, 2022 2:38 PM

For over 20 years, the annual Roasted Potato Festival has been celebrated in Slovenia, organized by the Society for the Recognition of Roasted Potatoes as a Distinct Dish. They have a song (recording). Other Slovenian potato festivals include "blindfolded potato digs".
posted by brainwane (25 comments total)

Roasted potatoes are a thing I can get behind.

And around.
posted by Splunge at 2:45 PM on June 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

That looks like fun to me. I like the idea of potato roasting teams. I recently discovered that if I up my oven temp from 400 to 425,my oven home fries turn out som much crisper and nicely browned. Who knew 25 degrees could make such a difference.
posted by td2x10e3 at 2:46 PM on June 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

as my father said of onions, "I try to get on the outside of one of them every day."
posted by wmo at 2:52 PM on June 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Now my day will be incomplete if there isn't a potato trifecta.
posted by clawsoon at 2:53 PM on June 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

I have a convection oven that subtracts 25 degrees from the baking temp if you use the convection feature. So I always add 25 degrees to the temp. No oven tells me how to cook!
posted by Splunge at 2:54 PM on June 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm ashamed to say I don't know the difference between roast potatoes and other kinds of potatoes. But I do love me some potatoes. Help? I mean, isn't that just how you cook potatoes? Am I just lucky?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:08 PM on June 21, 2022

I mean, isn't that just how you cook potatoes?

[looks at comment suspiciously]
posted by clawsoon at 3:21 PM on June 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I refuse to believe that someone that lives in California and has been on metafilter since at least 2011 has never encountered fries/chips.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh BOY let's discuss the array of magnificent ways you can cook potatoes!!!!!!!!

First, I must quote one Sam Gamgee, a well-known literary expert on potatoes:

"*Po-tay-toes!* Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew... Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish."

Boiling red or golden potatoes is how you can get delicious mashers.

Baked Idaho potatoes are, well, for bakers.

Sliced medallions of potatoes make up the foundation of a good gratin.

Little cubes with herbs and onions will bring you a most superb breakfast side (or main dish, as I prefer it.)

And of course, fries/chips in all their wild and crazy shapes. I am partial to curly fries, personally

They are a sublime gift from nature, po-tay-toes. May you enjoy all their forms and culinary applications.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

Oh my brain. Ohhhh no. Yeah...for some reason I think of "potatoes" as when the whole thing is cooked. Not fries or chips. Those are a different thing in my sad little brain.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:25 PM on June 21, 2022

I may also be unclear on baking vs roasting.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:26 PM on June 21, 2022

I may also be unclear on baking vs roasting.

Which is the one where you wrap them in foil and put them on your engine block before a long drive?
posted by clawsoon at 3:35 PM on June 21, 2022

The difference is mostly semantic these days. Used to be that roasting meant over a flame and baking meant in an oven of some kind. These days we roast and bake in the same appliance. I suppose if you are being generous you might say that roasting implies a higher temperature and if you wanted char on it you would say to broil it.

In North America people usually say roasted potato when they are talking about the crispier potato that is seasoned and say baked potato to mean the foil wrapped kind that is softer and served with toppings.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 3:42 PM on June 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh BOY let's discuss the array of magnificent ways you can cook potatoes!!!!!!!!

Yes indeed! This previous post+comments would be a good starting point.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:45 PM on June 21, 2022

I may also be unclear on baking vs roasting.

So are the people of this festival, which appears to be a sauteed potato festival. (Based both on the picture of people standing around a giant skillet of potatoes, and the first recipe I could google.) These potatoes are parboiled, then cooked in a frying pan with fat, which is sauteeing.

Roasting and baking are both dry-heat methods, that is, done in a hot oven. Baking tends to involve lower temperatures and is also the older term for cooking in an oven (150 years ago, 'roasting' meant on a spit, and 'baking' meant in an oven). It could be either of these reasons why we have both baked potatoes (a whole potato, can be wrapped in foil -- must be cooked at lower temperatures or the outside will burn before the inside is cooked) and roasted potatoes (cut in hunks, roasted on a sheet pan with seasonings and oil -- higher temperatures result in more delicious brown bits) as two separate concepts; neither of which is the (I'm sure delicious) "roast" potato dish talked about here.

But while I'm wasting your time with pedantry and also talking about roast potatoes, let me make it up to you all by posting Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe for roast potatoes, which is phenomenal; the pre-boiling and roughing up seems fussy but the resulting potatoes are seriously restaurant quality. Toss them in bravas sauce if you want to treat yourself.
posted by Superilla at 3:45 PM on June 21, 2022 [8 favorites]

Maybe there is a translation issue from Slovenian to English?
posted by brainwane at 3:47 PM on June 21, 2022

Never forget potato soup.
posted by clawsoon at 4:00 PM on June 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'll take a run at all the potato recipes. I love 'em.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:12 PM on June 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

And there is this.
posted by Splunge at 5:02 PM on June 21, 2022

And this.
posted by Splunge at 5:07 PM on June 21, 2022

BTW signal asked why all the potato posts today. At least in my case: the other day Slovenia was the mystery country in Globle or Tradle, so my spouse and I looked at info about it including the Cuisine section of the Slovenia page on English Wikipedia, and that's how I found out about the roasted potato festival, and I meant to make a MetaFilter post about it at some point soon, and then today I saw there was a front page post about a potato thing and decided to make this post!

Also I love eating potatoes.
posted by brainwane at 5:48 PM on June 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

Made myself a quick version last night of the serious eats roast potatoes linked above. With a side of simple fresh mint sauce (mint, english malt vinegar, bit of sugar and water boiled together)

Amazing! I used the baking soda to make the water to boil the russet potatoes alkaline - and yes that really does work well (I used to use some vinegar to do the same but the baking soda seems to work really well!)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:09 AM on June 22, 2022

Roasted potatoes are a thing I can get behind. And around.

I prefer to get them inside.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:27 AM on June 22, 2022

But then the zeugma would only work if you had a roast potato big enough to get...

😮

Scratch that. I like the way you think.
posted by howfar at 12:57 PM on June 22, 2022

For me, baked = a whole potato baked by itself in its skin, maybe wrapped in foil
and
roasted = cut-up potato pieces, either roasted in a hot oven by themselves with oil/salt/pepper/seasonings, or in the tray under a large piece of roast meat so they soak up all the delicious fat and juice.
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:34 AM on June 23, 2022 [1 favorite]