Failed roast potatoes. Have I lost it?

[PollyOrange]

Done roasties on Christmas Day and also the week before and both batches weee awful. I've previously been good at roast potatoes but no more.
Maris piper potatoes. Par boiled for 15 mins from cold water. Mix of olive and rapeseed oil. (No animal fats ). The oil was hot or so I thought. Oven 180 fan. They just didn't seem to sizzle or crisp up no heated oil up and put more on but only a few were crispy.
Could they have been crowded ?
Ideas welcome please. I feel scared I've lost it.

The oven needs to be around 220 and we heat the fat for full thirty minutes before putting the parboiled dry potatoes on ( we also, after roughing them up, but prior to putting in oil, as a generous sprinkle of semolina ) my roasties are epic though I do say so myself ! Good luck op

Is your oven working properly ? Seal on the door ok? I'd test this by making a batch of Yorkshires.

I think a lot of posters are over complicating things with precise length of time to boil/ using flour etc. that's not necessary.

The potatoes do need to be dry though, so after fluffing them up let them sit in the colander or pan for the steam to evaporate rather than chucking steaming (wet) potatoes straight into hot oil, would be my advice.

You can use cornflour instead of wheat flour if your DS has coeliac disease.
Also, do you salt the potatoes, either when boiling or when putting them in the oven? Salt can make a huge difference to flavour and crispiness.

It sounds like your oven might be on it's way out op. My old oven was rubbish, couldn't crisp anything up, I bought an oven thermometer and it wasn't getting anywhere near hot enough. New oven incinerated everything...well I do because I keep putting it on too high and gauging the cooking time according to the old oven.

My top tip is a cast iron roasting pan fora nice crunch on your roasting.

I make sure that my potatoes are completely
cold before I add them to the smoking hot oil and I learnt a new tip this year to par boil them with a teaspoon of marmite for a lovely deep colour and delicious umami flavour even the marmite haters were converted .

I've changed to coconut fat as goose fat doesn't seem to get hot enough.

The small potato was lovely and the larger one was nice but not amazing. However, way better than Christmas ones so I feel I'm making a comeback! 😅

Try king Edward potatoes for roasties. Get the extra nice/finest potatoes. It makes such a difference. Par boil with salty water, then shake them up in the pan to make the edges crispy, maybe with a handful of semolina in for extra crispiness. Vegetable oil and a dollop of marmite and then on a hot baking tray at the top of the oven

Quite honestly, I've used duck fat, goose fat, ghee, beef dripping and vegetable oils at different times, boiled for anything from 5 to 15 minutes, then put into a hot oven with any of the aforementioned fats, or a mixture, salted them, then roasted for about an hour.
Never had any problems. They always turn out very well. Swear to goddess.

Pick fluffy large potatoes

Cut into quarters (medium ones) or sixths for large

FULLY boil them so the knife goes through (but they are still firm).

drain off the water immediately (you don’t need to dry them)

Shake to break up a bit which fluffs them up and creates bits too crisp (you don’t need flour or polenta if you do this)

Goose fat is best, but if you don’t eat meat then hard veg fat like white Flora that can cope with the temp

• Heat the fat in a roasting tray with sides

Once it’s proper hot put in the potatoes - don’t crowd them, turn them over in the fat and grind over pepper and sprinkle sea salt flakes

cook for approx 45-60 mins - you will have to experiment with this - turn and baste 2 or 3 times (take the tray out quickly, tilt so the fat collects at the end, and spoon it over the potatoes. It helps to have someone to help stop the potatoes sliding down into the fat.

Once they look ready they are, move them onto an oven proof dish and stick in a warming oven - they will be happy there for a bit

They will be fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside and the best thing on the table

Spoonful of flour after draining. Salt, pepper, shake, into the hot oil then do not disturb for the first half hr. My roasties take an hour and ten minutes or do but so worth it

I want to make another batch now to try the marmite option and / or salt and then a garlic and rosemary version. We might be eating them all week though I'm back to slimming world tomorrow!

Ive never put flour on the potatoes, dont bits of the flour come off into the oil and burn in the oven?

Par boil 5 mins oil in oven for 15 mins at 200 degrees. Drain rough up in pan with flour salt and pepper then in oven for 45 mins!

I would say those roasties in your progress pic look a bit on the large side. Smaller roasties come out crispier. Also it looks as if you need to rough the outside up a bit more first, they look very smooth. I know you said you couldn’t find anything suitable but I shake my potatoes in flour, cornflour or semolina before adding them to the tray.

My secret is sprinkling coarse sea salt on the roasties in the tray, and also a sprinkling of garlic powder. Sometimes I use a bit of garlic olive oil together with the usual meat fat or goose fat.

DM hates garlic but she loves my roasties. They don’t taste of garlic, it just gives a nice crispy finish that’s tasty.

And yes, definitely don’t overcrowd your tray!

I use Delia smiths original receipe for roasts and have never gone wrong. I use vegetable oil though as I am veggie so no animal fat. I par boil for 10 min. Shake them up in the pan, no semolina or flour. Put them in really hot oil that has been on the tray in the oven and coat them. Then I turn them regularly. I actually find roast potatoes are best if they are large. Too small a potatoe and it's too hard on the outside rather than crispy hard, it's more brick like.

Ive just seen the pics, yes they are too large

Get an air fryer, game changer!

Was the oven very full? If there's a lot of stuff in the oven it affects air circulation and the damn things won't crisp. Also if the pan was too crowded or the potatoes weren't bone dry when they went in this will also make them soggy

These look really good!

I'd say, cut them to all the same size so you don't have big ones or small ones. I use vegetable oil because I'm vegetarian, around 0.5cm deep. Make sure they aren't crowded in the roasting tin, they always take longer than I think, turn a couple of times...
But I agree that practice makes perfect so enjoy perfecting it!

Mine are as follows - parboil in salted water in a pan with plenty of room, for 9 mins. Drain, steam dry and shake/ could have teaspoons of flour or polenta. While par boiling heat tins (for about 10/15 mins) with lots of chosen substance- I use goose fat or dripping but rapeseed oil would be fine. Oven at 200.
Put in tins. Add sea salt, pepper and rosemary. Stir to coat. Roast for an hour, turning every 20 mins. Give them plenty of room.

Oh and they can take longer than expected- tonight's have been in for 1 hr 20!

I must say, OP, I admire your fighting spirit and refusal to be defeated by a potato.

I reckon they just need a bit longer to be really good.

On the slimming front, ironically enough I had to make a social media reel recently for work on making great roast potatoes, leaving me with a tray of them that I didn't want to waste, right while trying to lose weight. So I went right ahead and ate a massive bowl of roast potatoes and gravy for dinner and still managed to make that work in my day without any great shenanigans to accommodate it. They're very nutritious!

Oh and crush garlic bulbs. No need to peel them.