# Prick potatoes before microwaving **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [November 11, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983 "2023-11-11T13:59:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/21 "2023-11-11T22:47:31Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I wouldn’t have guessed [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poking-potatoes-before-baking/925739) was 3 years ago. Yes, but in the current thread @glee is the OP and you’re down near the current bottom. Whereas in the cited thread you’re the OP and @glee is the last poster. > [@needscoffee](#): > > a balut egg I have no idea if that’s a typo, some interesting dish from a country not the USA, or some species of bird I’ve never heard of. But a headless egg sounds thoroughly horrifying. No wait, that sounds completely normal. Care to explain a bit more for a clueless 'Merican? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/22 "2023-11-11T22:49:15Z")
Someone hasn’t watched enough Survivor! 😉 (Fertilized egg w/ critter inside. Amazingly gross IMO…) ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/23 "2023-11-11T22:52:47Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > But I’m not heating a whole big oven to bake a couple of potatoes. Our compromise position is to start then in the microwave, wrap them in foil for a bit, then finish them for 10 minutes in the oven while we’re baking crescent rolls. That’s a pretty good compromise. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/24 "2023-11-11T23:07:58Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > What a mess! “Mom!! The head is gone!!” 🤯 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/25 "2023-11-11T23:13:45Z")
Anyone worried about running an oven for too little effort might try this idea: When cooking potatoes for just two people I use the oven, but make 6 or sometimes 8 baked potatoes. They keep well and reheat quickly. All the oven time is about getting nice crispy skins. Which stay crisp thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/26 "2023-11-11T23:23:34Z")
I was trained to prick but often forget. Have had an explosion or two. Not a huge disaster when it happens. More an oh crud. I tend to compromise on methods. Start in the oven (counter top toaster convection) at 400 and if not done when the rest of the meal is ready nuke it the rest of the way. I love my skins but my wife tends to only eat the insides so the crispy skin is just for me anyway. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/27 "2023-11-11T23:45:08Z")
So, it’s not uncommon for farmers to use birdshot to chase off birds in fields. And although it isn’t usually necessary in potato fields, crop rotation happens. So my guess is that the OP’s potato had enveloped a fragment of metal shot or other metallic shard. It’s also possible there was a rotten spot in the middle with a lot of water in it. Something, somehow, caused the center of that potato to concentrate more heat from the microwaves than the rest of it. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/28 "2023-11-11T23:45:16Z")
> [@glee](#): > > So please be careful out there. \* > > \*I remember Hill Street Blues 😃 On the rare occasion that I am pulled over by a cop (usually random breath testing, now and then to book me) I always make that my parting comment. Only once has the cop been old enough to recognize the quote. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/29 "2023-11-11T23:55:23Z")
Nah – I only started microwaving potatoes a few years ago, and the microwave works exceedingly well for it, depending on the use. I mostly do it for gnocchi. It’s quicker and I don’t get waterlogged potatoes. Easy peasy homemade gnocchi. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/30 "2023-11-11T23:56:46Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I forgot to poke holes in one that I had in the oven. It didn’t make too big of a mess but it sounded like a grenade went off. > It’s not a mistake I intend to repeat. Assume you mean a conventional oven. A non-zero percentage of conventionally baked potatoes explode too. My partner used to work in a restaurant and pricked all the potatoes until his co-workers laughed at him; they accepted that a few will explode, and you just don’t serve those. (Duh.) Not sure what they did about the mess, though, which is formidable. At home, he still pricks them, and forces me to as well. One night, I pricked them but not well enough (he said), and I insisted that since the whole thing was ridiculous anyway, they were going in the oven as-is. What do you know, one of mine exploded. Now I prick them about 70 or 80 times. ETA: @seanette as well. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/31 "2023-11-12T00:08:59Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > Assume you mean a conventional oven. A non-zero percentage of conventionally baked potatoes explode too. Yes, I actually meant to clarify that when I was typing it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/32 "2023-11-12T03:44:14Z")
Put me down as another who has seen unpricked(?) potatoes blow up in both conventional and microwave ovens. In fact, my very first encounter with a microwave oven was back in about 1972, when my workplace got one of the early RadaRanges, and someone thought they could hard boil an egg by just putting it in the microwave and turning it on. Talk about impressive experiences! ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/33 "2023-11-12T03:59:49Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That seems…odd. it isn’t like potatoes have a hard shell that holds in moisture until a failure point is reached, like an egg or popcorn. That’s what I thought, too… until I finally had one explode (and I even usually pricked mine, just didn’t that night…) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/34 "2023-11-12T08:43:22Z")
I agree that microwaves make for lousy baked potatoes. Buy they do a great job for convenient mashed potatoes that you don’t have to mash. My general rule is that a microwave can simulate boiling. I learned that from Alton Brown, in a Good Eats episode about dumplings. Just don’t use it for things under pressure. Though I agree I’ve never had a problem with potatoes: they just take longer to cook if you don’t vent them. With what was described in the OP, I wonder if something else was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Feurmann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/779978/32.png) [@Feurmann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feurmann)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/35 "2023-11-12T10:19:48Z")
I always cook potatoes in the microwave, and always prick them beforehand. I use a microwave potato cooker that must be 30 years old. It has four curved arms on it that have two little extrusions poking out of each Put a potato on each arm, make two indentations in the skin, then turn it over. Cook the potato or potatoes on “Baked potato” or equivalent setting. The oven beeps after 6 minutes or so (depending on the size of the potato/es). Turn them over and press “Start” again. The potatoes are perfectly cooked. You can cover them with foil if you wish, or jus keep them warm until you need them. The only exception to this is if the potatoes are very different in size. Then the smaller is rather well cooked and the bigger rather less. Just give the bigger another minute or so. If you want crisp potatoes, a convection oven is needed. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/36 "2023-11-12T13:31:36Z")
I find amusing the comments stating as fact that microwaved potatoes are lacking in some way. As tho the posters are expressing anything other than their personal preferences. I’ve long felt that potatoes are likely my favorite foodstuff. Yesterday I had for dinner a large baked potato with butter - cooked in a microwave. My preference is to cut it in half, spoon out the insides, and eat the insides and the skins separately. The way God intended a baked potato to be eaten! Go through whatever machinations you feel appropriate, but my nuked tater yesterday was excellent. I have had countless oven and fire baked potatoes in my life - foiled, oiled, salted and whatever, that were vastly inferior to my simple nuked taters. Just had to get that off my chest. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/37 "2023-11-12T15:06:22Z")
You can prick your potato but you can’t . . . well, um, potato your prick? RIP, George Carlin ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/38 "2023-11-12T15:16:21Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > o my guess is that the OP’s potato had enveloped a fragment of metal shot or other metallic shard. > > It’s also possible there was a rotten spot in the middle with a lot of water in it. > > Something, somehow, caused the center of that potato to concentrate more heat from the microwaves than the rest of it. I think something similar happened early in my son’s attempts at learning to cook. He innocently nuked a potato in my microwave and the result was apocalyptic. Not only did the potato become a charred mess, the entire inside of the microwave was coated with odiferous soot. It took a long time to get the smell out, and the soot stains never completely disappeared. We were puzzled as to how any minor mistake he might have made (didn’t prick the potato enough? Set the timer for too long?) could have had such exceptional consequences. I think you’ve explained it. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/39 "2023-11-12T15:22:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Care to explain a bit more for a clueless 'Merican? A balut egg is a fertilized egg that has a partially developed bird embroyo inside. > **[Balut (food)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(food))** > > Balut (/bəˈluːt/ bə-LOOT, /ˈbɑːluːt/ BAH-loot; also spelled as balot) is a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled or steamed and eaten from the shell. It is commonly sold as street food most notably in the Philippines, Cambodia (Khmer: ពងទាកូន, paung tea kaun) and Vietnam (Vietnamese: trứng vịt lộn, hột vịt lộn (popular in Southern Vietnam)). The term comes from the Filipino language. > The length of incubation before the egg is cooked is a matter of local preference, but generally rang... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983/40 "2023-11-12T15:27:10Z")
TIL. Thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prick-potatoes-before-microwaving/992983.md?page=3)