It doesn’t seem to make any difference which side the foil is facing, except when you’re baking your spuds in the microwave. Then the foil should be OUTSIDE, in the drawer.
It’s a trick question! Potatoes should never be wrapped in foil when baking.
Some modern microwaves tolerate foil up to a point.
Why not?
Not that I’ve been baking potatoes in a while. Microwaving seems to work sufficiently for my needs.
It traps the steam, resulting in a potato skin that’s soft and soggy instead of crispy and delicious.
Exactly.
And microwave? That’s not a baked potato, it’s a faked potato.
What they said. No foil, no microwave.
No oil either, as long as we’re talking about it. That also interferes with the crispy perfection of a proper baked potato.
Concur on don’t use foil in regular ovens, for same reason: steamy. Don’t know why people do it; I can’t believe they like it better if they’ve tasted unsoiled.
Potatoes in microwave taste weird. In a pinch, for small new potatoes, a coating of olive oil may help, but it’s still the texture that kills it.
But, I must say, that when prepping in a hurry for mashed potatoes when you’re going to add butter, milk, cream, etc., it’s OK, I think. Ditto for gnocchi.
However, when I’m going for a really purée *pommes purée *, I like to have a little of the boiling starchy water from boiled potatoes. (I know, I know, what about steaming…)
As the people from the Idaho Potato Commission will readily tell you, the baking potato should NEVER be wrapped in ANYTHING prior to going in to the oven. The single best preparation technique is to wash and dry the spud, brush on some vegetable oil thinly and evenly all over the skin, pierce the potato 2 or 3 times with a fork (this allows steam to escape during baking, making for a fluffier, less soggy potato) and popped into the oven, either directly on the rack or on a sheet pan.
Potatoes wrapped in foil trap the steam inside the potato and make for a soggy dining experience.
If one must, one can wrap the potatoes in foil sheets AFTER they have emerged from the oven - this might at least preserve the illusion that the foil is helping to hold in the heat. Personally, I think the whole foil fetish is a scam promoted by BIG FOIL to keep profits high.
Foil is good for when baking them in a campfire. Other than that, leave the foil on the roller.
I remember the first time my mother made baked potato skins for her father (back in the 70’s, when this seemed like a new thing). He loved them, and lamented all the skins they’d thrown to the hogs, in his childhood. Of course, he didn’t lament the bacon.