# Potato growing/cooking question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [May 31, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308 "2021-05-31T19:22:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/1 "2021-05-31T19:22:06Z")
So my kids’ school has this garden that they basically piddle around with and use for occasional educational purposes. It’s open for people in the community to come harvest stuff as they like, although few actually do. We (my family) are involved in the garden maintenance, and we were doing some post-school year stuff the other day, and noticed that someone had harvested a bunch of potatoes, but had done so in a half-assed way (just pulled up the plants and taken what came up with it). So we got out our hand tools and went to town in those beds, and found something like 8 lbs of potatoes that they had neglected to dig. Anyway, long story short, I washed, peeled and boiled a few for potato salad, and while most of them cooked up delightfully, it seems that one or two remained hard as rocks and crunchy after about 8 minutes of boiling. What causes this? Is there a way to identify the potatoes that will do this beforehand? I haven’t ever had store-bought potatoes do this before. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/2 "2021-05-31T19:39:58Z")
[Moderating] Both cooking and gardening questions traditionally go in Cafe Society. Moving. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/3 "2021-06-01T14:40:34Z")
8 minutes is quite short. Were these tiny potatoes? Were the ones that stayed crunchy slightly larger? Otherwise they may have been a different variety. Potatoes do vary in what they are like when done, but “crunchy” almost always means “aren’t done”. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/4 "2021-06-01T14:49:52Z")
I’d cut them into mostly evenly sized pieces- about 3/4" square, more or less. What was weird is that only a very few were crunchy, and size didn’t seem to have anything to do with it. I found crunchy tiny pieces, and large fully cooked pieces. They were all immersed fully in the boiling water as well. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/5 "2021-06-01T14:51:50Z")
I would guess they were a more slow boiled and firm fleshed variety then, or very soft rocks. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/6 "2021-06-01T15:27:51Z")
> [@naita](#): > > or very soft rocks. Well he said he cut them up, but before that I was wondering if he could tell the difference between potatoes and rocks. They are very similar looking when you first dig them up. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/7 "2021-06-02T03:27:24Z")
I’ve found hard chunks in boiled potatoes. They won’t mash and I remove them. I found this explanation. > [@](#): > > What you are describing can happen more frequently with some medium solids (starch) varieties, such as the Russet Norkotah. It typically is limited to the core of the potato when it occurs, sometimes referred to as the stem. During the growing season, unusually cold weather in a field may cause the potato matter to remain dense thru the length of the center of the potato. > **[Potatoes That Will Not Cook](https://idahopotato.com/dr-potato/potatoes-that-will-not-cook)** > > I recently tried to boil some potatoes (purchased within the past week) that would not cook.  They remained hard and inedible after boiling more than 40 minutes, even though the pieces were only 2 inch cubes.  Please note that I have been... ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/8 "2021-06-02T16:44:37Z")
Thanks! That sounds pretty much exactly like what has happened. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potato-growing-cooking-question/943308/9 "2021-06-02T23:54:13Z")
“Dr. Potato isn’t a real doctor but a team of potato experts ready to answer all your potato questions.” Next you’ll be telling me that the Rug Doctor doesn’t have an M.D. 😥