Baked Potatoes: Cooking Can Be So Easy

Sep 15th, 2010 by Marilyn

In 1975, the first recipe I tried from the Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cook Book (“For Beginning Cooks of All Ages”) was Creamy Lemon Pie, page 58. “You’ll be proud to serve this mouth-watering pie at a family dinner or a fancy party.” I was eight, and reread the words several times, to make sure they were talking to me: Serve. Family dinner. Fancy party. I followed the recipe to the letter, agonizing over the terms. “Beat egg with fork till no white shows.” Did I see any white? I think I saw white. More beating. “The delicate graham-cracker crust.” How delicate was delicate? Delicate like bubbles, or delicate like that green candy dish I broke? And how did you pronounce that, anyway? I hoped no one would ask me to say it.

The tangy yellow pie was a triumph, especially the graham-crumb star on top, which they had pictured on page 58. You may want to make up your own design, the book said. Nothing doing. I copied it, certain their six-point star would unlock the door to mouth-watering. Fancy party. I cooked my way through the book step by 1-2-3 step, carefully turning out Tutti-Frutti-Ice Sparkle, Quick Walnut Penuche, Flip-Flop Pancakes and steaming, butter-pat perfect Baked Potatoes.

Baked potatoes had few ingredients – one – but apparently required a recipe. I followed it. Fifteen years and four kitchens passed before I stopped following recipes, before I started jotting yolk-stained notes, before trusting my own hands, before saying why yes, I will make up my own design. Enough experience and the deceptively easy – the omelet, the pie crust, the potato – will come easier. Directives loosen and slide and one day, in your kitchen, you throw in this and take out that, and the recipes serve as inspiration. Your hands trust you.

Still, even the seasoned cook takes steps forward and back. For Summer Fest Potato Week (soon to be Fall Fest), I thought nothing like baked potatoes, and since no tricks or twists can make them better than they are, I decided to pull my BHG Junior Cook Book and retrace my steps, following the Baked Potatoes recipe exactly as I did in ’75, which is to say, exactly. I found the beloved blue squares basic and soothing, and also found they produced the finest baked potato a beginning cook – or any cook, of any age – can make.

Set oven at 425°. Scrub dirt off potatoes. Stick with a fork to make holes for the hot steam to escape.

Note that the wire brush is not the exact one pictured in the book. Had I the wrong brush in 1975, I might have assumed the potatoes would come out wrong – deflated or something. Guess what? Brush not important.

Put potatoes on oven rack. Bake potatoes 40 to 60 minutes. They will be soft when squeezed with toweling.

And indeed, they are soft when squeezed with paper toweling. I was so enamored with the word. Would you pass me a paper toweling? Mother, I think we are out of toweling.

Cut a cross in the top of each potato with a paring knife. Place a pat of butter or margarine in each opening.

That cross-cutting bit was clear to me but oh dear, butter or margarine. Which one? Also, the BHG illustration (see above, #3) taught me that when dealing with butter, a pat was not just a slice, but a square yellow thickness of your choice.

There we have it. I followed my own junior footsteps and turned out the same excellent, crisp-skin and fluff-center potatoes. I didn’t toy with perfection then and, experience aside, don’t see any reason to now.

Well. You know.

Summer Fest is an annual online celebration of good food and great ideas, featuring food and garden bloggers from around the globe. Every week we share great recipes, stories and tips for marvelous seasonal ingredients. You can participate by visiting the guest blogs to share links or comments – and if you’re particularly inspired, contribute a post of your own. Drop by A Way to Garden for details on how join the party.

THIS WEEK’S LINKS: POTATOES

Alison at Food2: Boil ‘Em, Mash ‘Em, Stick ‘Em in a Stew

Kirsten at FN Dish: Twice-Baked Potatoes

Sara at Cooking Channel: Duck Fat Roasted Potatoes

Healthy Eats: A Day of Potatoes: Spuds for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Hatch Chile Potato Salad

Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Taquitos de Papa, made with leftover mashed potatoes

Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Indian Spiced Potatoes with Chickpeas (Aloo Chole)

Paige at The Sister Project: French Fries to soothe a burnt-out cook’s soul

Margaret at A Way to Garden: Potato Growing, Curing and Storage Tips

Food Network UK: We like spuds

Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: The strange experience of growing potatoes

Cate at Sweetnicks: Bleu Cheese Potato Mashers

Gilded Fork: A roundup of potato recipes

Tags: baked potatoes, BHG Junior Cook Book, crazy OCD kid, summer fest 2010

Posted in books, Chicagoland, guest posts, recipes

26 Responses to “Baked Potatoes: Cooking Can Be So Easy”

on 15 Sep 2010 at 4:04 am1Summer Fest: Potato Taquitos — Pinch My Salt

[...] Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Baked potatoes and vintage “junior” cookbooks [...]
on 15 Sep 2010 at 4:19 am2We like spuds | UK Food Network Blog – Locally Sourced

[...] Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Baked potatoes and vintage “junior” cookbooks [...]
on 15 Sep 2010 at 4:46 am3Purple Cook

For Fall Fest:
Curried Potatoes with Tomatoes and Peas
http://purplecook.blogspot.com/2010/08/curried-potatoes-with-tomatoes-and-peas.html

The verdict on this dish at our house was, KEEPER!
on 15 Sep 2010 at 7:42 am4Janet

OMG..I had that cookbook! Now I have to go to my parents’ house and see if it’s still there so I can check out the recipes. If memory serves, I think there was a recipe for a Purple Cow (but I may be confusing it with another cookbook).
on 15 Sep 2010 at 8:14 am5sandhya@vegetarianirvana

Thanks for the baked potato 101, we do need to get back to basics from time to time.
Here is my ‘Summer Fest Chaat’ a product of a challenge I set myself to come up with a recipe just using all the featured summer fest ingredients so far.
http://vegetarianirvana.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/fest-chaat/
on 15 Sep 2010 at 8:49 am6marlena spieler

you are such a star! wonderful writing, as always!
on 15 Sep 2010 at 9:48 am7Kathy - Panini Happy

Lol – my husband still refers to his BHG junior cookbook when he makes me my annual birthday breakfast.
on 15 Sep 2010 at 10:07 am8Nicole

I love baked potatoes and I love your writing! Thanks for sharing your early kitchen memories
on 15 Sep 2010 at 10:12 am9Prerna@IndianSimmer

What a cute post!
Here’s what I did with the theme ingredient a while back http://www.indiansimmer.com/2010/04/dum-aloo.html
on 15 Sep 2010 at 12:51 pm10carolyn

this resonates with me so much! thank you.
on 15 Sep 2010 at 1:03 pm11Kulsum at JourneyKitchen

nothing beats the classic. Oh my, when I saw that butter slab coming near the baked potato I swear I salivated. My contribution is yet another Indian classic that makes me salivate. Simple and easy Indian spiced potatoes

http://journeykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/teekha-aloo-hot-potatoes.html
on 15 Sep 2010 at 1:34 pm12Chef Gwen

how to bake a potato. but not just any potato. the perfect, baked potato. another lovely post that now has me dreaming of simpler times, when a baked potato was enough. was everything.
on 15 Sep 2010 at 1:40 pm13miconian

I love the beautiful simplicity of this, and I would buy a cookbook full of one-ingredient recipes. I recently found out (courtesy of Mark Bittman) that it’s possible to cook an eggplant by simply putting it in a hot pan on the stove, with no oil. The skin chars, but you’re not gonig to eat that anyway, so who cares? I would rather know about that one trick than have a book of a thousand complex eggplant recipes.
on 15 Sep 2010 at 2:26 pm14Ranjani

Love your story! It’s fun thinking back on out early culinary adventures…
This week I made a potato gratin:
http://4seasonsoffood.blogspot.com/2010/09/potato-and-parmesan-gratin.html
on 15 Sep 2010 at 3:52 pm15One Hungry Mama

What great pictures! Cooking can be so easy! Love it. Thanks for sharing.

I went healthy with potatoes for this weeks Summer Fest. I focused on the surprising nutritional benefits of white potatoes and how we can get the most out of their nutrients. I also share a recipe for my Potato and Chorizo Tacos which are, believe it or not, healthy too!

Thanks for another great week. Can’t wait to read what everyone else has been making with potatoes!
on 15 Sep 2010 at 4:04 pm16Kathleen

I love children’s cookbooks. Wish I had saved more of them. Use one now I think it is called ABC, all recipes from the alphabet. I made a few potato ideas this week for Summer Fest.
http://dejavucook.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/herb-roasted-fingerling-potatoes/
http://dejavucook.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/green-onion-stuffed-potatoes/
on 15 Sep 2010 at 7:27 pm17Cate O'Malley

That looks absolutely perfect!
on 15 Sep 2010 at 7:42 pm18mek

Oh the Tutti-Frutti Ice Sparkle! How I loved that drink – but due to the vast quantities of Kool-Aid packets required, we only made it once in a while. I still make the same chili recipe.
on 16 Sep 2010 at 6:37 am19HPD

i wonder, back when the JCB came out, how many different kinds of potato were available at most grocery stores? one?
on 16 Sep 2010 at 8:38 am20Susan Champlin

I’m so, so happy to meet the wee Simmer, with her furrowed brow and intent gaze as she pores over each step in the baked-potato directions. I want to give her a hug. Thank you for taking us back with you to see the beginnings. Some of us are still at that furrowed-brow stage, and I look forward to the day when I can confidently declare “Brush not important.”
on 17 Sep 2010 at 10:46 pm21Louise

i love it, who doesn’t love a good baked tato?

I did simple classic comfort food 101- MASHED
http://2besatisfied.blogspot.com/2010/09/summer-fest-lemon-thyme-mashed-potatoes.html

~Chef Louise
on 19 Sep 2010 at 11:16 am22Deb

Yum … potatoes in their jackets with a little butter, salt and freshly ground pepper … my favourite
on 06 Oct 2010 at 6:46 pm23Jennifer

Oh God! You just reminded me of the Family Affair (you know, with Buffy?) cookbook I had and how I loved it so. There was a picture of a layer cake I was absolutely entranced by.

And btw, how on earth do you make something as simple as a baked potato look SO tantalizing?
on 14 Feb 2011 at 8:18 am24Sarah

I miss Simmer! Hope all is well in your kitchen Sarah
on 21 Aug 2012 at 10:49 am25Mary

I loved that cookbook when I was a kid. There was a recipe in it for stew tomatoes that you bake in the oven with onion, bread cubes and salt. It was delicious and I’ve never been able to find a recipe like that. If you know I’m unlink that has that recipe please let me know!
on 08 Sep 2012 at 1:22 pm26Elaine

I’m 60 and had that recipe book as a child. I still own it and use it all the time.