Last night was my turn to cook. I poured boiling water over the potatoes (as I've done all my adult life) and the good lady went ballistic, telling me that I ought use cold water and bring things to the boil.

If I'm totally honest, I've never noticed a difference between my potatoes and hers.
Do you have any thoughts or advice on this?

I can't see the difference it makes to the spuds whether you add boiling water or cold. It is my habit to plunk them in cold and bring to the boil, once boiling I reduce the heat to simmer. But, I have heard that , it is best to add carrots and peas to boiling water so to preserve the vitamis.
Maybe someone can enlighten us Rebbonk, but if my husband made the dinner, it would be miracle!




Here I found a discussion on how to do it.

http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/6007/when-boiling-potatoes-should-i-put-them-in-with-the-cold-water-or-in-to-the-hot

HI Rebbonk,
As Mari does, I do too. I put the spuds into a pot of cold water, bring it to the boil and then turn it down to simmer. My man does it differently so when he par boils them before we make roasted potatoes he puts them into a pot of hot water and lets them boil for some while before turning them out and draining them for the oven. This to me doesn't make sense because the process of bringing them to the boil breaks the starch down. The timing from cold to boil then simmer for about 5 monutes is just right for making them into roasties. I cannot get the timing right if they are added to already hot water. I think the fork test is needed with his method but not with mine.

Thank you ladies.

I too use cold water. I also make sure the spuds are cut into similar sized pieces or use spuds of similar sizes for even cooking. I am still old school and like a little salt in with them.

I should also add that at the point of draining them if they are par boiled ready for roasting, give them a really good shake up. They should be slightly fluffy from this action ie not smooth so the surface area is increased. This causes them to crisp up in the oil/fat much better than if they are smooth.

I use a pressure cooker