Most recipes for mashed potatoes and potato salad begin the same way: “Start by boiling the potatoes.” But how you boil those potatoes can affect the final outcome. Do you want potatoes that turn silky smooth or ones that hold their shape? And how do you keep your boiled potatoes from tasting bland? It’s all in the details. And we love details. Two factors—how long to boil potatoes and how much salt to add to the pot—distinguish an okay-tasting potato side dish from a truly great one. We’re answering all your biggest and smallest spud-boiling questions, bringing you closer to perfect potatoes than you’ve ever been before. Let’s dive in.
How long should I boil potatoes?
Baked potatoes can take upward of an hour to make. Boiled potatoes can be ready to mash, smash, or sauce after just 30 minutes. But if your mashed potato recipe says to "boil potatoes until fork-tender,” you may be left with some questions, like: How long does it take to get to fork-tender? And what does fork-tender even mean? Let’s start with the basics.
There are two main types of potatoes: floury potatoes and waxy potatoes. More on that in this potato primer, but for our purposes here’s what you need to know: Floury potatoes (like russets or Idahos) have a higher starch content and are more likely to fall apart when boiled. With the help of a ricer or food mill, boiled floury potatoes will break down to a silky, ultra-creamy purée, making them a top pick for mashed potatoes or soup. Waxy potatoes (like new potatoes, red potatoes, and fingerlings) will keep their shape in the pot, provided they aren't overcooked—a quality befitting a niçoise or potato salad.
When boiling potatoes you must consider their size. Drop a whole russet into the pot and by the time the outside has cooked through, the inside will still be raw. Larger potatoes should be cubed to ensure they cook evenly (peeled first if desired). Smaller potatoes tend to have thin skins and can be boiled whole, no peeling required. Need to cook a bushel of potatoes quickly? Cut them smaller. One word of warning: If overcooked, starchy potatoes like russets will practically disintegrate, so keep a close eye on them while they boil. Nobody likes mushy potatoes.
The cook time for your potatoes will vary based on the size of the spuds:
- Baby potatoes cook in 10–12 minutes
- Small potatoes cook in 15–20 minutes
- Larger cubed potatoes cook in 30–40 minutes
The level of doneness you’re looking for depends on the application: If you’re keeping the potatoes intact—say, for potato salad—you’ll want them to have a bit of bite to them, whereas fall-apart-tender potatoes make the silkiest mash. Test their doneness by piercing with a cake tester, fork, or butter knife: The potato should be soft all the way through and offer no resistance. The knife should slide in easily for potatoes you want intact, but should slide in and out easily for potatoes destined for mash or purée.
How much salt should I add to the potato water?
I’m sure you’ve heard about the whole “salt your pasta water until it’s salty like the sea” thing, but have you ever heard “salt your potato water ’til it’s salty like the sea?” (To be fair, this is less of a thing than the pasta water thing, but that doesn’t make it any less true.) Think about it: Potatoes are large and dense. Salt has to penetrate a lot of mass in order to make it all the way through potatoes by the time they’ve finished cooking. The highest-impact way to avoid under-seasoned, tastes-like-nothing potatoes is to thoroughly season the potato-cooking water.
If adding 1 cup of kosher salt to your potato pot (as in this recipe for Sour Cream and Onion Potato Salad) seems like a lot, just think about how much of it is going down the pipes when you drain those babies. Nearly all of it! The full cup is needed to make a highly concentrated salt bath so that the potatoes can soak in enough seasoning in the 15 or 20 minutes they take to cook through. We’ve done countless tests in the BA test kitchen to determine the right proportion of salt to water when boiling potatoes—we urge you to trust our work.
Take heed, if you skip this step, almost no amount of salt can redeem the already-cooked potatoes. Here’s why: You’ll probably end up adding some kind of fat to those potatoes after you’ve cooked them (be it sour cream or mayonnaise in the case of potato salad, butter and heavy cream in the case of mashers, or olive oil in the case of crispy boys); when you’re doing that initial boil, take into account that the fat will mask and dilute the applied salt.
How to boil potatoes:
Here’s the golden rule of potato boiling: Instead of dropping them into a pot of already boiling water, cover the potatoes in cold water, then bring to a boil. Not only will this save you from splash burns, but it’ll help the potatoes cook evenly, preventing the outside from cooking faster than the inside.
Should you peel potatoes before boiling? We prefer to leave the skins on, which prevents the potatoes from absorbing excess moisture. If you’re putting them through a ricer, as we do in our best mashed potatoes recipe, the potato skins will be removed anyway.
- Place 2 lb. potatoes in a large pot (if using baby, small, or medium-size potatoes, leave whole; if using large or sweet potatoes, peel if desired, and cut potatoes into 1" cubes). Cover potatoes with 3 qt. water. Add 1 cup Diamond Crystal or ½ cup Morton's kosher salt to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat, adjusting as needed to maintain a simmer. Cook potatoes until they offer no resistance when pierced: 10–12 minutes for baby potatoes, 15–20 minutes for small potatoes, or 30–40 minutes for large cubed potatoes.
- Drain potatoes in a colander and let cool 10 minutes. Proceed with the recipe as written.
As for how you spin those spuds, that’s personal preference. Do you want your mashed potatoes laced with sour cream and scallions or garlic-miso butter? Crowned with crispy potato skins or made days ahead of time? We’ve got all those recipes and more. Or maybe the summer’s here and you want a classic potato salad recipe. We have that, but we also have Korean potato salad, Spicy Caesar Potato Salad, and plenty more ways with this staple cookout side.