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Milk Street Recipes

Why Crispy Smashed Potatoes Turned Out Too Salty

Asked Nov 09, 2019 by Katherine D.

I am wondering if anyone else has made the crispy smashed potatoes on page 9 of the November/December 2019 issue? I followed the recipe carefully and while the texture of the final product was as described (crispy and creamy) the potatoes were so salty as to be inedible. The recipe calls for boiling the potatoes in 2 quarts of water with 1 cup of salt.

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COMMENTS

  • Jason F.

    November 9, 2019

    I did not have an issue with the saltiness. What brand and kind (kosher, table, etc) of salt did you use?

  • Katherine D.

    November 9, 2019

    I used Morton's table salt (would have preferred kosher but did not have enough).

  • Jason F.

    November 10, 2019

    I believe Milk Street typically uses Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. This salt is one of the least dense salts you can buy. By comparison, Morton's table salt is almost twice as dense- meaning that for the same volume of salt, you are actually using nearly twice the amount of salt by weight. You can substitute one for the other but you have to adjust quantities. These numbers are approximate: 1 tsp table salt = 1.5 tsp Morton Kosher = 2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher.

    So in the potato recipe if using table salt you should use 1/2 cup, not a full cup.

    Hopefully that is right and I did not just embarrass myself.