Roast dinners are a staple in every UK household, and no Sunday roast is complete without the perfect crispy potatoes. Self-proclaimed potato queen and chef Poppy O’Toole has been testing a variety of roast-potato hacks to see if they really deliver good results.
In a recent TikTok video, she shared a cooking hack: parboil the potatoes, cover them in fat, and then freeze them before cooking. Yes, you really can freeze potatoes.
Freezing the potatoes helps convert their moisture into ice crystals, so when they are cooked, they form a crust on the outside. Serious Eats explained that the same process applies to other potato varieties, such as chips.
View 2 ImagesFreezing the potatoes in advance will also allow you more time when making your roast.(Image: Getty Images)
It said: “Freezing the fries after the initial quick-fry and before the final fry contributes to a fluffier internal texture by promoting moisture release, which is achieved through the formation of ice crystals that disrupt the potato cell structure.”
Frozen roast potatoes can also be done ahead of time, leaving more space in the oven for when you’re whipping up a roast. All you’ll need to do is take them out of the freezer and pop them in the oven.
Firstly, you’ll want to parboil some Maris Piper potatoes in salted water for between 10 and 15 minutes. Once boiled, let them dry slightly.
This is followed by placing them in a baking tray with a rack. Poppy then melts some goose fat before pouring it over all the spuds.
You want to make sure the melted fat sticks to the outside of the potato and completely coats the spud. Remove the potatoes from the rack and place them on a baking tray, and put them in the freezer.
The potatoes can be left overnight. Cook the potatoes in the oven at 180°C (fan).
After 30 minutes in the oven, remove the tray and flip the potatoes over. Return the potatoes to the oven and cook for another 20 minutes at 200°C (fan).
When taking the finished results out of the oven, Poppy said, “Ohh, look at them. They look a bit of all right, don’t they?”
Testing out the frozen potato hack, the chef said: “Mm. That is delicious. It’s got a really crunchy outside. So freezing them, covering them in fat, I think really does give you a very good hack. I like this hack.”
Poppy’s video has been viewed over 24,000 times, receiving 1,225 likes and six comments. Asha wrote: “Yum looks amazing.”
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Joanne suggested: “I part-bake my, then defrost and finish off in oven or air fryer, game changer at Christmas, part-cook veg as well.”
Gaz said, “If this works, I take back all I said about her being the potato queen.”