Roast potatoes come out 'superior' and extra crispy if you add 1 kitchen staple to water

Roast potatoes are at their best when they are crispy on the outside butsoft and fluffy on the inside. and while most home chefs rely on adding their spuds to a sizzling fat to achieve this crispy exterior, one Reddit user revealed an interesting tip that will give you perfectly crispy roasties.

The home chef revealed the tip on the social media platform after a fellow user asked for "tips on making the ultimate crispy roast potatoes".

The user added: "I usually boil my potatoes for ten minutes, drain them off and put them in the oven with a sprinkle of vegetable oil. They normally turn out really crispy but the taste just isn't there. That's why I'm asking you guys for tips."

Sila143 responded to the request, revealing that the ingredients needed for the best roast potatoes are most likely already in your kitchen cupboard.

They wrote: "Parboil the potatoes in salted water with just a little bit of baking soda for a few minutes. This makes the outmost layer of the potato much softer and that's the goal rather than getting a head start on the cooking."

Cooking website Serious Eats also recommended adding baking soda to boiling water, and the reason is the alkaline solution it forms when dissolved in water.

Serious Eats carried out tests in which potatoes were boiled in alkaline water and vinegary water and found that the potatoes boiled in the water with baking soda "were actually superior to those boiled in vinegary water."

It wrote: "The alkaline water helps the exteriors of the potatoes break down more, creating much more of the starchy slurry that leads to an extra-crisp exterior."

It added that around half a teaspoon was used for two quarts of water, which is equivalent to around two litres. So next time you plan to make a nice portion of roasties, make sure to dash a bit of baking soda into the water.