After seeing lots of Lobsterfest Lobster Porn, Mr. singular and I just enjoyed a meal at Red Lobster. As expected, everything was delicious and we barely ate a third of what was served. Of course we brought the leftovers home, and I just had the baked potato for dinner. What do they do to their potatoes?!? It was so wonderful! I don’t care if it makes a 1200 calorie potato, I have to know what they do to make the skin so irresistable. Any former RP employees know what kind of opiate they put on their potato skins?
I worked there many years ago and they oiled the potatoes (don’t recall it it was butter, butter flavored oil or just oil) and salted them, then just baked them as usual.
The perfect baked potato starts with an overnight soak in cold water (in the fridge). Then dry it off well, oil and salt, and then pop into a 500 degree oven and turn the overn off. (or down to whatever temp you need for whatever else you’re baking.
Put it in a hot oven and turn it off?? I bake my potatoes for a good long time. Every thing I ever attempted to cook that involved putting it in an oven and then turning it off ended up undercooked.
Yeah, YMMV as different ovens cool off at different rates. If your cools off quickly you probably should just turn it down to 350. The thing is that you want to crisp up that skin right away before the inside starts steaming. Otherwise it will just come out rubbery at best.
Another former Red Lobster employee. Ca3799 has the prep right; they baste the potatoes with the butter-flavored vegetable oil that’s also the base for the biscuit topping, then roll the potatoes in kosher salt. I can’t help with the cooking temp, but I vaguely recall that the cooking time might have been around 45 minutes.
A light coating with a film of lard and some salt before baking is a professional steakhouse trick for amazing baked potatoes.
Salt will improve the taste of almost any savory dish, and some sweet dishes, too. It got a VERY bad reputation for being bad for the heart, to the point where many people, including my husband’s family, won’t add salt to anything. Mind you, almost all of the adults who are over 30 are chain smokers, but they think that a sprinkle of salt is gonna do them in.
I do think that Red Lobster puts too much salt in their biscuits, though.
Without a doubt duck fat makes for the best baked vegetables. Not only tastier than butter but healthier as well.
Mmmmmmmmm, duck fat.
I think I know what I’m having for dinner (at least the starch portion).
Thanks, everybody. I’m assuming the microwave is out of the question here. I’ll try the olive oil and Kosher salt approach, although I’m tempted to add a little bacon grease for flavor…
Correct. Microwave is basically useless (actually, counterproductive I’d think) for anything that relies on searing or crisping.
Pound a couple of nails into them before you put them in the oven. The metal conducts the heat into the interior.