What to eat? Let’s make potato fires. But how do add crisp like restaurants? The old granny’s recipe says soaking potatoes in salt water can add crispiness to the fries, just like restaurants, and add a chew crunch to musty veggies.
Is this true? Why do you soak potatoes? What happens to a potato in salt water? How long to soak potatoes?
Woah, hold the horses… we will inform you about everything in today’s tastiest guide, so you don’t have to worry about late restaurant deliveries anymore.
Let’s start today’s sumptuous cooking tips about Soaking Potatoes in Salt Water.
What Does Soaking Potatoes in Water Do?
Spuds are full of starch and moisture that even the knife gets super wet while cutting them. This retained moisture undermines the crunch and crispiness of baked or fried chips.
The hack is here. According to restaurant chefs, old granny recipes, and food experts, soaking potatoes in salt water can be helpful to keep the flakey feel.
Salt water helps absorb excess moisture and extra starch to produce perfectly firmed, flaky fries and chips.
The tip is: Peel the potatoes, chop into sticks or your desired shape, and dip them in the saltwater 24 hours before frying or cooking. For baking, soak, then unpeeled and un-chopped in the whole form.
Why Soak Potatoes in Cold Water?
According to food professionals,
You should use ice-cold water instead of hot or ambient temperature.
Hot water is a no-no while dipping your chips in salted liquid before frying. This is because starch reacts with the hot ambiance of water and never separates entirely.
Due to this, a gummy or sticky layer erupts on the fried spuds chips and emasculates the chirpy crisp.
However, you cannot use any other liquid, like vinegar or alcohol, as they might react with salt.
So, the tip is: Use ice cold water, mix a spoon of salt in it, and then soak potatoes so the sultry layer of starch gets washed off thoroughly.
Soaked potatoes in cold water will not remain sticky or moist and produce a plate of chips with a crunch-like hotel.
Why Soak Potatoes in Salt Water?
You might have seen irrigation departments spread salt on excessively moist soil, right? Why do they do so? This is because salt comes with extraordinary properties to suck and absorb water glut.
The same formula is used in recipes. Soaking potatoes in salt water will eliminate the dampness inside the water, and for starch, cold water will do the chore.
Together, they will prepare perfect spuds to prepare crispier chips, salads, potato veggies, mashed vegetables, fries, dips, etc.
What Happens to a Potato in Salt Water?
A number of things happen while soaking potatoes in salt water. However, they are all positive. You can see the spuds changing their taste, essence, and overall concentration.
For instance, if you soak yams in cold water with salt in it, you will see:
The potato sticks getting shrink
Along with this, if you have soaked whole potatoes, peeling them off will show you a drastic shrink in size.
However, if you have used hot water, the spuds will come out mushy, spunky, and gluey.
Soaking Potatoes in Salt Water Benefits
Here are some benefits you can obtain by soaking potatoes in salt water:
1. Crispier Fries:
You can make crunchy and crispy fries with dried and dehydrated spuds in cold salted water. There is natural water and starch in the water, which keeps the chips mushy.
However, salt concentrated ice cold water removes the moisture and starch. You can use these dried and dehydrated potatoes in various dishes to get a taste like restaurants at home.
2. Weight Loss:
Removing the excess starch from potatoes can actually help you lose weight. (Check what happens to your body if you eat corn starch).
To accelerate weight loss, along with soaking potatoes in salt water, you should use air fryers or make them in butter and margarine.
Following a good diet plan will be the cherry on top when you are trying to lose weight without refraining from chips.
3. Keeps You Filled:
Starch in potatoes is something never lets you feel filled. That’s the reason when you make fries at home; you eat more than your fill.
This more and more eating can make you fat and obese, and if potatoes are fried in oil, you are actually inviting weight gain.
Cold water will remove the excess starch and keep you filled for a long time.
4. Increased Fiber:
Soaking potatoes in salt water remove the moisture and stiffeners and will increase the chips’ fibrous properties.
This not only promotes weight loss but improves blood circulation. By doing so, the snacks you eat will supply plenty of oxygen and nutrients to the various parts of your body.
Doing so will improve your overall health, and your skin will become healthy from inside and out.
We also suggest you improve your diet, do proper workouts, and plan healthy meals for even youthful skin.
5. Prevent Diseases:
Recent research has found that soaking potatoes in salt water will diminish the levels of acrylamide, a compound found in starch-rich vegetables.
Acrylamide can be hazardous to health and can be a reason for various chronic diseases in animals and humans, such as cancer.
With the removal of starch due to pre-soaking, you are actually preventing your health from getting into chronic diseases.
These were some benefits of soaking potatoes in cold water. But, this discussion doesn’t end yet. Below are some more pieces of information you must know about soaking potatoes in salt water:
How Long to Soak Potatoes?
The duration of soaking water in the saltwater varies recipe-wise. First of all, you will have to decide what you are going to do with the potatoes.
For instance, are you going to prepare fries, bake veggies, or simply try to get rid of access to starch to gain health benefits?
Once decided, here is the detail on the duration:
Soaking Potatoes in Salt Water Before Baking:
For 8 hours
If you are making any baked dish with potatoes, soaking them in salt water will not take so long but a little longer. We would suggest you do the preps at least 10 hours early.
Do not peel off potatoes. Rather, put them whole in the concentrated salted water. Make sure the water is ice cold, or else the starch will not get removed completely.
Now, soak as many tomatoes as you need for the recipe but make sure dipped entirely in liquid. After 8 hours, these are ready for your recipe.
Soak Potatoes in Salt Water Before Frying:
“Exact 24 hours, not even 5 minutes more.”
This is going to take the longest and require some preparations beforehand. So, how you get your potatoes ready for crunchy fires, here is the guide.
First of all, peel the tomatoes off and try removing the skin completely. After that, cut them in your desired shapes, such as in a stick shape for fries.
Now, you should add some salt to the cold water (make sure the water is cold and not hot and remain cold for the entire time). Dip your chopped potatoes in it.
Once done, you will need at least 24 hours to keep potatoes dipped in the water.
Do not keep the dipped mixture at room temperature because by doing so, water might get to an ambient temperature that we don’t want.
Store it in the fridge or refrigerator. Do not put them in the freezer; we don’t want potato sticks to get frozen.
Also, make sure to draw out potatoes from the concentrated water after 24 hours and never let them stay there more than that, or else they will start absorbing water.
Soaking Potatoes in Salt Water Overnight:
Soaking potatoes in salt water for one night or 24 hours will not remove the starch completely nor dehydrate the moisture.
However, it can bring them to optimum levels. So, you can use it to make fries but not for baking. Also, this will not make chips entirely crunchy; a little mushiness will remain.
Bottom Line
Here, our discussion on soaking potatoes in salt water comes to an end. We have discussed a detailed guide on the topic by covering questions and adding benefits for health and skin.
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