Potato Varieties for Flavour -Boiled Baked Roasted Mashed

What potato to grow depends mainly on what you want – different varieties are best suited for various dishes and cooking methods -boiling, baking, roasting, chipping, mashing, salad etc.

Best Potatoes for Salads
Best Potatoes for Boiling
Best Potatoes for Mashing
Best Potatoes for Baking
Best Potatoes for Roasting
Best Potatoes for Chipping 

What Potato to Grow?

Every year we sit down with the merchant’s catalogues and try and decide what potatoes to grow. With the all the different varieties on offer, no easy task. Usually we stick to some that we know grow well for us and we like plus a few experimental varieties.

One thing to keep in mind when choosing a variety to grow is that the yield and flavour will be affected by the growing conditions and soil. It’s always worth checking what neighbouring plot holders and gardeners are growing and trying a sample if they’re generous.

Flavour is also subjective. One man’s delicious is another man’s tasteless. The tables below are basically a general opinion and are a good guide but you’ll make your own choice.

I’ve not attempted to cover every variety available but I think I’ve got the main ones that are readily available from both garden centres and specialist suppliers. You may find one variety appears in two or more sections as some potatoes are more multi-purpose than others.

What makes a potato a good roast or mash or chipper etc?

The main factor that decides what a potato is best for is the dry matter content. Most of the potato (and any other vegetable) is water, what is left is the dry matter. In turn, most of that dry matter is starch which absorbs water and swells on cooking. Boiling high dry matter and, therefore, high starch potatoes will often cause them to disintegrate in the pan.

Potatoes with high dry matter are generally best for chipping or roasting. The famous Golden Wonder crisps were named after the variety of potatoes they were made from which has very high dry matter.

Texture, cell structure and protein content all effect the suitability of potatoes and age has an effect.

The most famous first early, new, potato is the waxy Jersey Royal which is actually the International Kidney variety. International Kidney is in fact a maincrop potato and if left to develop will become a floury fryer and not suitable for boiling at all!

Best Potatoes for Salads

Best Potatoes for Boiling

Best Potatoes for Mashing

Best Potatoes for Baking

Best Potatoes for Roasting

Best Potatoes for Chipping

Potato Growing Articles

• Growing Potatoes Overview – How to Grow Potatoes Guide
• How Many Seed Potatoes are Needed
• Potato Flowers, Fruits, Seeds & Breeding
• Growing Potatoes – Standard Traditional Method
• Growing Potatoes Under Straw Mulch
• Growing Potatoes Under Black Plastic (Polythene) Sheet
• Potato Growing in Raised Beds & Ridge Planting Potatoes
• Growing Potatoes in a Barrel – Patio Growing Potatoes
• Growing Potatoes in Bags | Greenhouse Potatoes
• Second Crop Autumn Planted Christmas New Potatoes
• Can you chit supermarket potatoes?
• Potato Varieties for Flavour -Boiled Baked Roasted Mashed
• Potato Fertiliser Program Program & (NPK) Requirements
• Potato Blight Cause, Identification. Prevention, Treatment Potato Blight
• Wireworm in Potatoes Cause Identification Prevention Control Potato Wireworm
• Eelworm Potato Cyst Nematode – Control Potato Eelworm
• Dry Rot in Potatoes Cause Identification Prevention Control of Potato Dry Rot
• Potato Scab – Common Scab in Potatoes
• Potato Scab – Powdery Scab in Potatoes
• Hollow Heart, Splitting & Spraing Potatoes
• White Spots on Potatoes Lenticels & Potato Stem Rot

See Also:

• Growing Potatoes for Show, Introduction & Best Varieties
• Growing Potatoes for Show, Cultivation of Show Potatoes
• Growing Potatoes for Show Harvest & Showing Potatoes

• Harvesting Potatoes Guide
• Storing Potatoes Guide
• Potatoes from the Allotment Shop