Best-ever roast potatoes

Perfect your roasties with these useful tips and tricks…

WHICH POTATO VARIETY TO USE

Maris Pipers are best because they produce the perfect balance between fluffy, soft insides and crisp, shard-like exterior.

BOILING FROM COLD WATER

Bringing the potatoes to the boil from cold water ensures that they are evenly parboiled from the inside out. This stops the outer edges from collapsing when they’re in a hot oven.

HEAVILY SALTED WATER

The potatoes will soak up the cold salted water before they start to cook – salt draws excess starch from the potatoes, ensuring maximum crispness.

COOLING AFTER PARBOILING

When the potatoes are roasted from cold they will have set and stopped cooking, and excess moisture from the boiling process will have evaporated. So when cooked in hot fat the outside will have a headstart and become perfectly crisp while maintaining that delicious fluffiness inside.

HOW TO GET FLUFFY ROAST POTATOES

Roughing up the edges of the potatoes once parboiled created a larger surface area for the hot fat to work on.

WHICH FAT TO USE

With it's high smoke point and rich flavour, duck fat will make ultra-crisp roasties with a savoury meaty taste. To make these roast potatoes vegan, simply swap the duck fat for vegetable oil.