How to cook the perfect baked potato...

...and boiled potato. and microwaved potato.

How to Cook a Perfect Baked Potato:

I don't really know what qualifies a baked potato as perfect or why you'd need a baked potato to be perfect, but if that's what you're looking for, your best bet is to cook your potato from 350 to 425 degrees for anywhere from 40-90 minutes.

The truth is, the perfect baked potato only exists in your mind. Experimenting with temperatures and cook times in your own home is the only way to find out how to make your perfect baked potato. As the old saying goes: One man's perfect baked potato is another man's....

While that may not be all that helpful, from my searches across the web, there are a few certainties I've discovered when it comes to baking potatoes... these certainties are:

• Bake your potato at 350 degrees or more.
• Bake your potato for at least 35 minutes.
• If you are cooking other things with your potatoes, your potatoes will take longer to bake.
• Tinfoil is optional.
• Poke your potato to find out when it is done.

That's pretty much it. Experiment and you will find your perfect potato, it may take months, but it will be worth it in the end.

How to Cook the Perfect Boiled Potato:

Here are the most basic instructions for boiling a potato...

1. Clean your potatoes with a brush and some water.
2. Cut off any hardened or dark spots.
3. Peel your potatoes (unless you are planning to bake them after boiling, in which case leaving the skins on is a good idea) and clean them again.
4. Place potatoes in pot.
5. Cover potatoes with one inch of water.
6. Add salt (1 teaspoon per quart of water in pot)
7. Boil

Now that you know how to boil potatoes, it's time to figure out how much time it takes to get a perfect boiled potato every time.

• Small potatoes take 10-15 minutes.
• Medium potatoes take 20-25 minutes.
• Large whole potatoes can take 35-45 minutes.

The times above are based on whole potatoes of that size. If you cut the potatoes into pieces before boiling, the times will correspond with how large the pieces are.

Watch your potatoes while boiling so they don't boil over and check every 5 minutes or so to make sure they aren't turning to soup.


How to Make the Perfect Microwaved Potato:

1. Clean potato.
2. Poke holes in potato to prevent explosions.
3. Put potato in microwave.
4. Cook for 5 minutes on high.
5. Eat.

It's very important to poke holes or the potato will go boom.

You can also experiment with the time as well, since we all don't own the same microwave. Your microwave might be able to do in 3 minutes what my microwave can accomplish in 5. Who knows right? Only you.

Happy Potatoes.

How to create a Wikipedia Random Page loading bookmark

1. Go to Wikipedia.org and bookmark it.
2. Open your Bookmark Menu and right click the Wikipedia bookmark and choose Properties.
3. Change the location (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page or something) to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage (I've only tired the English version but I'm guessing it works for all languages)
   
4. Click bookmark
5. Enjoy