Enhance Flavor of Oven Baked Potatoes

Today I'll talk about how I make this simple but delicious food even more tasty. My trick is to use a splash of vinegar. This little secret is well known by chefs and people who are exploring their taste in the kitchen. I understand you might have doubts about it, but vinegar is very much used as a natural flavor enhancer in many dishes. And not just vinegar, but also lemon, lime or wine.
For the oven baked potatoes you can use any vinegar you like- I really like white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar with it.
The potatoes won't get sour because we will put it back in the oven for a bit and the sourness will cook out. That's the same way we cook with wine- we have to cook it out of our dish before we add any liquid otherwise our dish will be sour.
I also don't salt the potatoes before I put them in the oven, as I don't want it to dry out.
I add herbs very last usually as I like them to stay fresh, keeping all their favor and medicinal properties. I add some of the spices like sweet red paprika, chiles, garlic or sage 5 minutes before the end of baking.
I never weighed the potatoes before making them so I won't write down the precise measures. In my case it's always a lot- because I love oven baked potatoes.

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Ingredients:

  • potatoes
  • olive oil
  • 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar
  • salt
  • herbs and spices of choice

Preparation:

  1. Turn on the oven at 190°C.
  2. Peel and cut the potatoes however you like.
  3. Wash them until the water gets clear.
  4. Cover the baking tray with baking paper and place potatoes on it. Splash with some olive oil and put it in a hot oven.
  5. After about one hour the potatoes should turn golden and crispy on the sides.
    Take it out of the oven and use a potato masher and slightly press them down. Don't mash them just penetrate through the skin so the potatoes will get nicely baked all over.
  6. Splash it with 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar, you can also use a spray bottle for that.
  7. At this point add salt, spices and herbs that you would like to roast a bit. Toss well.
  8. Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes.
  9. When done, add some fresh herbs to it and serve with fresh salad and some dip or sauce.
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I read somewhere about this, especially if you make chips! And I love the addition of lemon juice as I have so many lemons growing here. Thank you for the tip! Now I am craving some oven-baked potatoes!

Ohh lemon would be great too! I wish to add slices of lemon to it and slightly roast them with potatoes. Unfortunately here is not a great inviroment for growing lemon, although is possible. I usually buy them in a store...

Oh, that is a shame. I am very lucky to have lemon trees on the property. They are so happy after the recent rains. Oh, and I will try this! Roasting the lemon a bit as well. I think this will give more flavor. Have you done this?

Yes I like to roast them a bit with my main dish sometime. Of course I need to peel them because the store bought lemon peels are quite toxic. You don't have to do that as you have homegrown. And the peel gives the best taste...
I only have a cherry tree on my property, I planted a few others but there still really young. I'm so jealous! 😃

Not to make you more jealous, but yes, I love to use the skin of the lemons in so many dishes! Making salad dressing with the lemon rind and lemon juice is just awesome! Oh, I will need to try this roasting of the lemon with potatoes now. I am super intrigued and I can only imagine how nice they will taste.

Do you ever dry pills for spice? I always need it for cakes or cookies and I'm buying it in a little dealer-like bag. Literally in grams 🤣 It's not expensive but my drawer is full of those...

What I do is I make lemonade or something like that with the lemon rinds and then I dry it in the sun. There is some sugar on them so they dry out really well and get almost candy-like. Very tasty! So maybe that might work?

That sounds like heaven! ☺️😃