Here’s what my sister, an excellent chef, has to say:
My method: buy only Idaho potatoes. I don’t know what’s different about Idaho soil, weather, farming techniques, etc., but I did a blind taste test years ago for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and was amazed to find that Idaho really does grow the best potatoes.
Get Russets or other “baking” potatoes. There are baking potatoes (floury, tender when baked) and boiling potatoes (waxier, for lack of a better word). It makes a difference.
Next: pierce them with a fork a couple of times all over to allow steam to escape. Place them directly on the oven racks in the middle of a preheated 350-degree oven and bake them for an hour. No microwaving. Don’t wrap them in foil; this steams them (making the skins yukky, in my opinion) and actually makes it take longer to bake them, since the foil helps deflect the heat.
I think I just had my last Wendy’s baked potato. It was just a big dry lump of dry carbs. With 1 packet each of butter and sour cream, I could eat about a third of it before I was left with the remaining 2/3 of dry starch. Not that they prepared it wrong; there just isn’t a juicy variety of potato out there yet…I’m sure Monsanto is working on it. More butter & s/c are not a healthy solution. Maybe if it was in a bucket of some kind of broth or something…
I think Wendy’s actually does bake their potatoes, but the real key is getting the right potato. Russets are usually best. You wash them, poke a few holes in them, and then put them into the oven and bake (350-400 degrees – the temperature doesn’t really matter as long as you keep an eye on them).
The result is soft and fluffy on the inside with a crisp, crunchy skin.
How old is your daughter? Depending on her age, it could just be the fact that she’s eating “out” and not something homemade. Like when you were a kid and McDonalds or whatever was a treat. It’s the idea of going someplace and eating THERE that made it better.
It doesn’t make sense, but it’s kid logic – it’s not supposed to.
Mr. Horsehoe claims that the light coating of oil on the skin of the potato helps with heat transfer…
**Guinastasia **probably answered the OP’s question best. Also, I’d like to take a moment to nitpick about the microwave thing - nuke 'em and you have a steamed potato, not a baked potato. It makes a difference in the texture of the inside.
Oh, and before I forget: I think 200 F for a long time wouldn’t work. If it does, report back to us, willya? But I suspect it’ll just dry the whole thing out.
If they’re being held most of the day, the store is doing it wrong. During my Wendy’s tenure we tossed them after two hours. We would plan an hour at a time to have enough on hand without ever having them longer than two hours.
Just a note, from my own cooking failures file: if you try the oil (or butter) + kosher salt thing and then wrap the potatoes in foil, it doesn’t work. You don’t get the crunchy salt; instead, it dissolves in the foil due to the steam. I don’t know if it helped flavor the skin at all - I couldn’t tell.
I wanted potatoes like Red Lobster’s; I didn’t get them when I tried the above method. (Still good, just not what I was shooting for. Now I have the keys - thanks Sigmundex!)
Wendy’s uses Russet potatoes and the store receives them in a case of 50#. They are wrapped in foil and no other ingredients are added. The potatoes are uniform size approximately 9" long and are baked at 450 degrees for one hour.
They put potatoes into the oven every hour, (if they remember and the timers go off as they should). Since they bake for an hour and are held online in a heat drawer for 2 hours, they try to project their need for 3 hours. If they miss a drop, they won’t have enough, which is why they never have enough potatoes for your group.
BEST THING TO DO TO ENSURE YOU GET THE BEST POTATOES AND ALL YOU WANT:
Call at 1 hour before you intend to pick up your potatoes and ask the manager on duty to put extra potatoes in the oven, the amount you need. Go to the store in an hour and you get your Potatoes straight from the oven.
Always a good idea to ask for the last batch out of the oven as well.
Good luck!
Brad - 14 years managing Wendy’s restaurants throughout Central Florida.
Wendy’s uses Russet potatoes and the store receives them in a case of 50#. They are wrapped in foil and no other ingredients are added. The potatoes are uniform size approximately 9" long and are baked at 450 degrees in a convection oven for one hour.
They put potatoes into the oven every hour, (if they remember and the timers go off as they should). Since they bake for an hour and are held online in a heat drawer for 2 hours, they try to project their need for 3 hours. If they miss a drop, they won’t have enough, which is why they never have enough potatoes for your group.
BEST THING TO DO TO ENSURE YOU GET THE BEST POTATOES AND ALL YOU WANT:
Call at least 1 hour before you intend to pick up your potatoes and ask the manager on duty to put extra potatoes in the oven, the amount you need. Go to the store in an hour and you get your Potatoes straight from the oven.
Always a good idea to ask for the last batch out of the oven as well. A properly cooked and fresh potato has white pulp and steamy. If it is starting to brown when you cut into it, gag, yell and threaten until they replace it!
Good luck!
Brad - 14 years managing Wendy’s restaurants throughout Central Florida.
I find that par-nuking potatoes is as good if not better than a full roast. It already has too much water and starting a bit on the inside get s quicker evener inside before throwing in the oven to finish a perfect skin.
i worked at wendys for 3-4 years in my teens (over 20 years ago) and this is on the money other than that the potatoes were only kept 1 or 2 hours (cant remember which). anything over that and the quality was poor. i always liked the broc and cheese potatoes
Worked at Wendy’s for 5 years (some years just during summer break/xmas break). 100% spot on above - cook for 1 hr, into the warming tray for up to 2 hours. Occasionally they got left in the warming tray longer but sometime after 2 hours they would start to turn brown on the inside (depending on the size - the potatoes were relatively uniform, but the larger ones lasted longer, probably because they were not as done out of the oven). Potatoes were a very hard item because of the lag time - they were not generally super popular, so we might only put in 8 or 10 for one hours worth of dinner rush - so a few extra orders would knock us out.
We started out as a company store, but got bought out by a franchiser - under the franchiser we had the option of ordering the potatoes in sacks and washing/wrapping them ourselves with precut sections of foil, or ordering them prewashed and wrapped already.
There was something about the sour cream packets we got that was really good - for some reason it was thicker than the sour cream you buy in a tub at the store - I used it eat it straight out of the packets.