My teenager is 'making' jacket potatoes

[SouthWestmom]

So far he has not believed me that we use a brush to clean them and not a cloth (as per his recipe). Now I have to check how clean they are and whether they have been brushed enough. Next his recipe calls for a 'cloth' to dry them. I am 'ridiculous' for suggesting kitchen towel and not having a dedicated potato drying cloth.

So far the potatoes have not got anywhere near the oven....

Yes I think dinner is late tonight. God help us if he Googles coleslaw. Or decides to make his own baked beans.

Blimey, these are some seriously overthunk spuds. I just put them in the oven as they are, for 2hrs on 200. Bingo, perfect spuds.

They do taste nicer with oil and salt rubbed into them tbf. It makes the skin extra crispy and tastes better.

We often it at 8. He's just being European.

Eat not it!

Let him get on with it. He isn't confident enough to diverge from the recipe yet. He will once he has more practice.

You're right, I'm being mean. He is just very serious about this task.

Ooh I could eat eggs too now!

We are having them tonight. With leftover chickpea and spinach curry

hmm salt baked potatos, as in spanish tapas style then
do you have enough bread and cheese in case you need a back up plan?

How old is he? My teenager used to be the same - very slow and very specific about ingredients. We ate late a lot when he decided to cook.

It gets better - he's just finished his first year at university, got a bit more practical and as I type he's making salmon en croute. Stick with it...!

(am very impressed and very surprised. And very pleased)

My potatoes come ready washed in the bag, so just prick them and put them in the oven.

No brushes or cloths required.

Please please make sure he has pricked them!!

My son put half a dozen in one Boxing Day and they all exploded. Loudly. And. All. Over. The. Oven. Guess who cleaned it up?

Good for you for letting him have a bash at it, however it turns out.

DH's mum wouldn't let him near the cooker "in case he broke it".

He taught himself a few skills after he moved out and confused the fuck out of her by cooking a lovely meal all by himself when we invited her round one day.

Have you had the argument about it not actually mattering whether you stab them with a fork, knife or skewer, just so long as you actually stab the buggers properly?

Is he starting them off in the microwave?

Hopefully not! Totally ruins a good baked potato for me. Finishing it off in the oven doesn't help either! You can spot a partially microwave potato a mile off.

A nice hot oven for a half an hour, then down to a slightly lower setting for another hour or so. Skin rubbed with oil and salt.

Nice crisp skin, totally fluffy inside. Perfect!

You simply don't get that if it sends any amount of time inside a microwave - it changes the texture of the potato completely.

It's jus he is quite a Puritan about recipes...

But that’s a good thing when you’re s beginner! I was the opposite way in my teens. I’d see recipes — good recipes by experienced chefs — as a mere starting point for my own (crap, novice) ideas. My food was horrible. My tarragon chicken is still a family joke. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of tarragon. “Pfft! What does this Elizabeth David know?” I arrogantly thought, and chucked in 3 tablespoons. It was disgusting.

It took me till I was 26, when I read Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course every night in bed like a novel, to get any idea.

It’s only experience that teaches you which substitutes work.

Enjoy your spuds!

My poor kids just got straight up microwaved jacket spuds tonight......because they hate oven baked ones 🤦🏼‍♀️ what am I raising 😂😂😂

I don't wash jacket spuds. I assume the oven nukes any dirt. We're all still alive despite eating lots.

Oh you lot are funny
No to exploding potatoes because The Recipe called for a fork and luckily I didn't query it. No to a microwave and yes to non experimentation for beginner chefs.
If he gets as far as encroute-ing anything I will eat my (salt rubbed) hat.

Oven temperature was a bargaining point so it's 160 on fan

Very very very late supper then. I'd do an hour at 220.

I think 160c is a bit low - going to take a while at that.

I'd get it way hotter. Maybe 220c for 30 min and then 170c for an hour;.

BBC Good food reckons:
The standard method is 200C for 1hr-1hr 20mins.
For a super-crispy skin and a slow-cooked inside, go for 180C for 2hrs 20 mins.

I want a baked potato now but there isn’t time. I will have a potato waffle instead.

Mine are being nuked right now.

My potatoes are bought ready washed, so I just rinse under the tap, give the skins a cross-cut on both sides with a sharp knife, and zap them in the microwave (for 5-10 mins or so, depending on how many I’m cooking) till they are soft. I then rub them with a little oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pop in the oven to crisp up the skins (about 30 mins). Ummmm!

DS off to uni. soon he has been reading a book his bro. gave him Nosh for students. We are going to start cooking now exams done. But he will have to do the shopping for the ingredients first to save any arguments about which oil to use for example.