Hi all…
I have some leftovers from the Lone Star for dinner tonight and I bought a couple of large russet potatoes for us as well. I want to make them in the oven, wrapped in foil with some coarse salt and get the same style of potato you get at Outback or Lone Star. Does any one have specific instructions for this? It’s kinda an emergency because I am starting back on my low carb life on Monday and want to have one more, perfect, baked potato :).
I would say the secret is a High Temp oven, between 400F- 425F. I’d go with with piercing the potato a couple of times, rubbing them with oil (olive or veg.) or butter, sprinkle and rub in the coarse salt, wrap in foil, and Bake for an hour at 425F.
The Baked Potato (Recipe courtesy Alton Brown) Lifted from www.foodtv.com
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Cable in the Classroom
1 large russet potato (If it looks like Mr. Potato Head(r), you’ve got the right one.)
Canola oil to coat
Kosher salt
Heat oven to 350 degrees and position racks in top and bottom thirds. Wash potato (or potatoes) thoroughly with a stiff brush and cold running water. Dry, then using a standard fork poke 8 to 12 deep holes all over the spud so that moisture can escape during cooking. Place in a bowl and coat lightly with oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and place potato directly on rack in middle of oven. Place a baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any drippings.
Bake 1 hour or until skin feels crisp but flesh beneath feels soft. Serve by creating a dotted line from end to end with your fork, then crack the spud open by squeezing the ends towards one another. It will pop right open. But watch out, there will be some steam.
NOTE: If you’re cooking more than 4 potatoes, you’ll need to extend the cooking time by up to 15 minutes.
During the show, Alton explains that using foil will trap the steam resulting in a gummy potato. This way is superior, IMHO.
I love Alton Brown, but I can’t reconcile these two lines.
I agree, but he asked for a potato the way Outback or Lonestar would do them… so that’s what I gave him. They wrap, someplaces don’t.
Here’s a thread at Chowhound on the perfect baked potato that might be of some help.
Thanks everyone for your responses and feel free to keep them coming !.. (I’m a SHE though 
)
To keep potatoes from drying out this is how we did them in the restaurants where I’ve worked and the results were good. The secret is to boil the potato first before baking it. Boil the whole potato until it’s easy to poke a fork in it but still somewhat firm, usually about ten minutes. If you were boiling it for mashed potatoes, it wouldn’t quite be done yet. After boiling and poking a few fork holes in the potato, you brush it with olive oil and coarse salt. They’re good like this for a while if you want to prepare them beforehand and pop them in the fridge, though having them cold will increase the time they need in the oven. Bake them at 400 degrees until internal temperature reaches 165. This’ll get the skin nice and crisp, but between the oil, the foil and the boil the insides won’t dry out.
When you take the potatoes out, cut a slit through the foil, fold it back slightly. Grab onto either end of the potato and squeeze them together. Voilà. I was always so proud of how these turned out. 
Gah, I can’t stand it! Wrapping foil around potatoes means you don’t get the nice crisp skin. Serving potatoes with foil on them is an even greater abomination. I get perfect potatoes just by stabbing them with a fork and baking them at 375 degrees til the skin is crisp and the insides are soft.
The only “secret” is starting with a good potato. An oval shaped russet is best. The longer Idaho-style russets are too mealy to my mind.
The oven racks go in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Then place the potatoes directly on the top rack and a baking pan on the lower rack (to catch any drips).
I’ve never had any trouble getting a nice crisp skin while using foil. Though, I suppose it could be my threshold for “crispy” is lower than yours.
I used to get disappointing baked potatoes and I started a thread similar to this one. The problem was I was baking them at around 350 or 375 or something.
After that, I’d poke holes in them, rub them with olive oil & salt, and bake them at a higher temp, no foil. 425-450. They started coming out much better, crispy crunchy outsides & fluffy insides.
I know that’s what it means, but that’s not what it says. It says to place the potato “directly on rack in middle of oven,” but according to the first part, there isn’t a rack in the middle of the oven any more.
Maybe Outback doesn’t wrap their potato, maybe Lonestar doesn’t either? Hell if I know, I haven’t been to an Outback in at least 15 years and I have only had the sweet potato at Lonestar. Smokinlbjc, mentioned the foil-- I thought they must be foil wrapped? Can anyone confirm?
I can tell you how they did them at the Steakhouse I worked at. Dump about 40 lbs. of Id ho Russet potatoes in a pro kitchen sink, Cover them with cold water. Let them sit for a while while you do some other prep. Give them a quick rub and wash with your hand in the water (racoon wash) and line them up, tightly packed, on several 26X18 full size alluminum sheet pans. Drizzle or brush the tops generously with EVOO. Stack them in a couple of Professional Convection Ovens at 400F and let them go for an hour. Remove to Store in a steam table during dinner service.
They weren’t the best baked potatoes, but they weren’t too bad as far as baked potatoes go. You gotta realize that most baked potatoes you get at a restaurant aren’t straight from the oven, but have usually been sitting in a steam table for quite some time (hours). So, I think that probably figures into the cooking process and the distinction of restaurant potatoes.
Well, if you’re expecting me to read for actual comprehension… well, that’s just asking too much. 
Yes I Gestalted the whole thing and didn’t read word for word. :smack:
I agree so let’s amend the instructions shall we?
Heat oven to 350 degrees and position racks in top and bottom thirds… place potato directly on the hot as hell upper rack which you have to relocate to the middle of the oven cause I wasn’t smart enough to tell you to put it there in the first place. If you consider the upper rack to be a uni-tasker, and therefore not worthy of your kitchen, you may do the following: Using a sky hook, hang the potato in the middle of the oven.
Better?
AB? Is that you?!?
Hi all,
I tried the method with foil tonight- they turned out GREAT but no crispy skin. Still damn good though…
I have two more and I will try the Alton Brown way tomorrow.
Naw, he is better looking than I am.
Getting back to the OP, here are the ways some car companies bake potatoes.
I can’t believe that no one has mentioned that the best thing to rub on baking potatoes is bacon grease.
I’m told that really goose fat is the best, but I’ve never gotten to try either, so I’ll believe you.
We always stuck a nail into the potato- a really big nail that was only a little bit shorter than the potato (for safety’s sake, so the end doesn’t point out.) It insured that the inside was heated more efficiently- I think. We have baked potatoes maybe once every 2 years.
If I were to bake a potato for myself, I’d break out the “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home,” read the awesome persnickety-ness of them (No foil! It makes a stifled taste!) and do exactly what they tell me, because I am a sheep to them. I’d check it now for you, but it’s lost in the shuffle of repacking for the return to the dorm. I think it’s basically devilsknew’s recipe, without the foil, though.