Which Type of Potato Should You Use?

Most of us buy potatoes based on how we’ll be cooking them, as opposed to a specific cultivar.

For example, for the ultimate mashed potatoes, you'll want starchy russets. But there are many more varieties of floury (starchy) potatoes to discover, and depending on what you plan to do with them, you might want to reach for one type over the other—high in starch, low in moisture and sugar content, floury potatoes are the ones you want if you’re baking, roasting, deep-frying, or mashing.

There are a few telltale signs that give you a clue to the potato’s starch content. When you slice a potato, sometimes a potato slice sticks to the knife, and other times it cuts easily and falls off the blade. The ones that stick to the knife are much starchier, while the waxier ones slide off effortlessly.

A more home-science way of determining starchiness is by dunking the uncut potato in a brine of salt and water (1 part salt to 10 parts water). If it sinks, it has a starchy persona; if it floats, it’s waxy.

Russet

Around 1870, Luther Burbank, an American botanist and horticulturist, introduced the granddaddy of floury types, russet potatoes, and more specifically the cultivar called Burbank. This is a late-summer-into-fall crop with a brown, almost coarse, tough skin and white, dense flesh. It is by far the most cultivated of all potato crops in the United States. Russets are harvested as late as November and store well even if not used until June of the following year. This versatile tuber is great for baking, french frying, and mashing (as they are fluffy when boiled, dried, and riced).

Yukon Gold

This hybrid, formulated in Canada, is by far the best-marketed potato in North America (named after the Yukon River in Canada and with a nod to the gold rush of the West). Gold-skinned and -fleshed, this medium-starch potato is a great multipurpose tuber that has fried, baked, and boiled its way into millions of kitchens. These potatoes are also much higher in vitamin C and potassium compared with other baking cultivars.

Sweet Potatoes Versus White Potatoes

Purple creamer

Genetically rooted in Peru, these beautifully tinted tubers are simply known in the United States as purple potatoes. Medium in size, they have dark purple skin and deep purple flesh, which, when sliced and soaked in cold water, lightens up to a beautiful soft shade of purple (if it were a paint, it would have a froufrou name, perhaps Petulant Patagonia). Purple creamers are more readily available now in supermarkets than they once were. With medium starch and a...

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