The Potato Flip Diary #5

The Quest For the Perfect Flip

A much better effort.

The Players

The Pan	7" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	Russet potato (~7 oz peeled and shredded) White onion, ~2 oz Pepperoni <1 oz Salt and pepper Shredded cheese (<1 oz)
The Fat	Vegetable oil, ~ 1 tsp

The Plan

After shredding the potato, rinse in cold water then pat dry. Saute the onions in a small amount of oil, add to the potatoes and pepperoni mixture, then add the remaining oil to the pan, add the potato mixture and fry 5-6 minutes per side, flipping in the middle, then cover with shredded cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven until the cheese melts.

The Results

Significantly better than last time. Rinsing the potato removed a lot of starch, which kept the potatoes from sticking so badly to the bottom of the pan. Unfortunately, they also didn't stick so well to each other.

The Verdict

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hash browns and 10 being the "perfect flip," this experiment ranks: 1 (hash browns).

Lessons Learned

I want to thank MUD for suggesting rinsing the potatoes the last time I tried. I had thought that it might help, and his suggestion was all the validation I needed to try. On the plus side, the stickage was minimal. Now I need to figure out how to get the right amount of stickage to get the potatoes to stick to each other, but not the pan. I'm considering cutting up and then boiling the potatoes, then cooling and shredding. I'm hoping that some of the starch will be removed, but not so much that I end up with hash browns again. But, I'm heartened. This was much better than my last attempt.