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Are white potatoes the right type for hash browns? I guess not as I couldn't get them to adhere, without using eggs or flour etc.

Cascabel
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ericcartman
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    Do you know a specific name? There are a lot of kinds of white potatoes. At the very least, were they waxy or starchy? (See for example http://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/54322/1672 or http://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/637/1672.) – Cascabel Sep 21 '16 at 17:11
  • [Moving "why do you want them to adhere" conversation to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/45717/discussion-on-question-by-ericcartman-white-potatoes-for-hash-browns). – Cascabel Sep 21 '16 at 20:00
  • I'm just wondering: did you rinse the potatoes? Many people do, and rinsing takes away excess starch, preventing potatoes from sticking. I've had bad luck using white potatoes for hash browns, but the ones that always work for me are Yukon Golds or German Fingerlings. – Shalryn Sep 22 '16 at 16:14
  • @Shalryn - fingerlings for hashed browns? Eeek! They are too precious a commodity in my neck of the woods for that. :D Speaking of which, it's about time for me to harvest my fingerlings grown via "potaotes in a bag".... – PoloHoleSet Sep 22 '16 at 16:48
  • @ Andrew Mattson - Look up the "stacked tire" method of growing potatoes. Just spray the inside of the tires with silicone sealant to prevent chemical leaching. You should get enough fingerlings that you don't have to skimp. :) I'd explain more, but I think this might not be the place for it. – Shalryn Sep 24 '16 at 00:39
  • @Jefromi I'm afraid I don't know the specific name, it wasn't marked on the packaging. – ericcartman Oct 04 '16 at 19:31
  • @shalryn Yes I did rinse them, most recipes seem to recommend that but I agree with you that it would make more sense NOT to rinse them, if you want them to adhere. – ericcartman Oct 04 '16 at 19:32

2 Answers2

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I'm assuming you're talking about shredded style hash browns. I'm not sure how much potato variety affects the outcome, as I tend to buy yellow potatoes (as they can typically be used either for roasting or mashing, so I don't have to think about how I'm going to use them in advance). I'm also more likely to make 'home fries' style hash browns, but I did a bit of research & testing for my pancake demonstration

Most recipes for this style call for soaking the shreds in water to remove the starch, then wring them out in a dish towel or similar. You can get sometimes get better adhesion if you don't soak them, but still wring out as much water out as you can.

If you're making latkes, you'll want a bit of depth to the oil, but generally 1 to 3 tablespoons of oil or butter is enough for hash browns, depending on how large of a surface you're working with.

Make sure the crust is nice and brown before flipping. Also, make sure that you're flipping it over in chunks suitable for your spatula size (either divide it up into quadrants or similar if coating the entire pan; or make individual piles only slightly larger than your spatula). If the potatoes drank up all of the oil when cooking the first side, it's generally a sign that the heat is too low and you might need to add some more (before you flip, so it has a chance to heat up)

The exact temperature to cook at depends on how much you're trying to cook at once, how fast your pans recover after putting the food in, and how thick of a layer you're cooking. (you want to make sure that the middle is cooked before you've burned the outside; if you're having problems with this, you can also par cook the potatoes in a microwave first).

If your pan/burner combination has a particularly slow temperature recovery, you might want to get the oil up to shimmering before you put in the shreds, but you typically aim for a little lower than that.

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Joe
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Use big brown ones or small golden ones but skip russet potatoes. Those are best for mashed potato recipe.

Edited: Comment Added

For perfectly crisp hash browns waxy variety(potatoes) works well. Use long shreds of potatoes to get them stick together. It works for me!

  • Are you suggesting waxy, starchy, or somewhere in between? There are a lot of kinds of potatoes, and color and size don't really narrow it down. (Also, small potatoes sound like a pain to shred for hash browns...) – Cascabel Sep 22 '16 at 06:06
  • Hi @Jefromi, waxy brown & golden ones work the best. Use food processor to shred them. Anyhow, no pain, no gain! –  Sep 22 '16 at 06:43
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    Interesting. I've seen stuff suggesting that the Russet is good for hashed browns, because they are starchy and that works well with pan frying. I use Yukon Golds for mashed, myself. – PoloHoleSet Sep 22 '16 at 16:46
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    Yeah, this is a bit surprising: Joe recommended a middle ground between starchy and waxy, and I've seen tons of recipes saying to use russets (which are starchy), so I wouldn't have expected you to say waxy is best. – Cascabel Sep 22 '16 at 20:07
  • I like waxy ones because they hold their shape while cooking. You may use whichever variety you please and condition them according to your taste and desire. @Jefromi –  Sep 23 '16 at 00:38
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    Ah. The question was how to get the potatoes to stick together better, so I assumed you were suggesting that waxy ones stick better than starchy. Now it sounds like you're saying everything sticks equally well? – Cascabel Sep 23 '16 at 01:23
  • The question asked if white potatoes shud be used for hash browns? –  Sep 23 '16 at 03:41
  • The question asks what kind of potatoes are necessary to get the hash browns to stick together, and implicitly (especially if the variety is not that important) is asking what *else* could've gone wrong to make their hash browns not stick together. Between your answer and your comments, I'm not actually sure what you're trying to say about what kind of potatoes will or won't stick together - you say you like waxy, but because they hold their shape, not anything about whether they stick together. – Cascabel Sep 23 '16 at 05:47
  • For perfectly crisp hash browns waxy variety works well. Use long shreds of potatoes to get them stick together. It works for me. @Jefromi –  Sep 23 '16 at 09:34
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    @SaurabhCooks thank you, the variable of shred length is interesting, I haven't considered that before but it does sound plausible – ericcartman Oct 04 '16 at 19:37
  • @Jefromi your summary of the essence of my question is very accurate. Thank you for clarifying it. I'm a bit confused between waxy and and starchy (which some people seem to call floury) but anyway, after the whites, I tried Maris Pipers and they seem to work a fair bit better. – ericcartman Oct 04 '16 at 19:44