My Mom didn't make a lot of fancy potato dishes. And for the holidays we had baked potatoes, both sweets and whites. It seemed my parents could always find the biggest potatoes ever. Mom knew how to make a baked potato right!
Today many people (including me) buy microwave potatoes because they're already wrapped and ready to cook. It's a convenience thing. But did you know you can do it without paying a higher price? More on that later.
So how did Mom bake hers?
Well, today's foodies would say she did it all wrong because Mom used tin foil which steamed the potatoes and kept the skins softer.
First, she would wash them very well and pat them dry.
Then she would puncture them through with either a knife slit or when she was feeling Hitchcocky, an ice pick.
Next, she lubed them up with liquid oil and then wrapped them in foil, twisting the ends upward to prevent leakage into the oven.
The length of time varied, of course, but in general, it was 400 degrees for 1 hour.
Now, if you want the skin crispy I recommend taking them out of the oven, removing the foil, salting them down with kosher salt on the outside, and popping them back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until the skin crisps.
There are, of course, other ways to bake a potato but I'll stick with Mom's Method!