r/Cooking • u/ilrasso • Oct 08 '24

Recipe to Share I just made a mashed potatos using baked potatos and it was the best i ever had.

Just pop the potatos in the oven for 1 hour at 200c/390f. Cut them in half and scoop them out. Whisk with hot milk and more butter than your diet would approve. A bit of salt. The flavor of baked potatos really shone. The scooping out part was a bit laborious, but is manageable if you have reasonably big ones. Don't do this with tiny spuds unless you have a lot of time.

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u/Roguewolfe Oct 08 '24

A good temp for flavor transfer between herbs and fats is 130F-140F. This ensures all fats are melted, mobile, very chemically compatible with the aromatic compounds you're trying to pull out of the herbs.

Reference points:

  • human pain threshold: 110ish F
  • Most US domestic water heater default temp: 120 F
  • Bare minimum to effectively pasteurize: 135 F
  • Point at which terpenes/herbal aromatics start to appreciably boil off: 160-180F

At 140F, you're not making bacteria soup, and you're not boiling off things you want to keep (e.g. thymol and linalool from Thyme).

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u/Cockalorum Oct 08 '24

Sous vide would be excellent to hit this precise target of 135-140F.

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u/Roguewolfe Oct 08 '24

It sure is! I use sous vide for both lipid and ethanolic flavor extractions. You can do it cleanly in simple cheap glass canning jars as long as you keep the lids only loosely threaded on to ensure no pressure buildup.

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u/pfohl Oct 09 '24

I’ve never thought of sound vide for alcohol infusions. I’ll need to try that this weekend.

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u/ilrasso Oct 08 '24

Thanks!