How Long To Cook A Rib Roast At 250 Degrees

A roast dinner is never complete without a good portion of crispy, roast potatoes. But are you actually making the most of your spuds?

Here are Cookery Editor Emma Franklin and the Good Housekeeping food team's tips and tricks to ensure you get perfect roast potatoes every time.

Parboil potatoes first

It's essential to parboil the potatoes first. As well as ensuring the middles are soft and fluffy, this will also make it easier to rough up the surface of the potatoes, resulting in a crispier crust.

Cook until tender

Cook the potatoes for around 10-12min, until tender when poked with a skewer or sharp knife. Drain and leave them to steam-dry for at least 3min. Shake them well in the colander to fluff up the edges.

Heat the fat first

Make sure you heat the fat or oil in a roasting tin before adding the potatoes – it should shimmer, but not smoke. Turn the potatoes in the hot fat with two spoons so they are lightly coated.

Don't forget to turn the potatoes

Roast for 1hr until golden and crisp, and don't forget to turn them occasionally to ensure they cook evenly.

by Elena Botta Getty Images

Here's a few tricks to try to make them even more delicious.

Sprinkle your parboiled potatoes with flour. This gives potatoes extra crunch. A tablespoon is all you need!
Throw in some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves or a handful of herbs (thyme, sage or rosemary all work well) with the potatoes when adding them to the hot roasting tin.
Get ahead and parboil your potatoes in advance and freeze them. Roast straight from the freezer, not forgetting to toss them in the hot fat first.
Use beef dripping. Now widely available at supermarkets, this gives your potatoes unbeatable flavour. It's a must-have ingredient for Yorkies too.
Salt the boiling water generously to season your potatoes from the inside out.
Love a buttery spud? Replacing half the fat/oil with butter will give you a lovely flavour, but they won't be quite as crisp due to butter's higher water content.
Give them a flavoursome crust. Mix a handful of grated Parmesan with a few pinches of dried herbs, garlic granules and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Scatter over the potatoes before roasting.
Cookery Director Meike Beck swears by adding a teaspoon of marmite to the fat in the roasting tin, for an extra savoury flavour. Love it or hate it – you decide!

Dish, Food, Cuisine, Ingredient, Potato, Produce, Side dish, Root vegetable, Patatas bravas, Dessert,

But everyone has their own ways of perfecting a roast potato recipe.

Jamie Oliver suggests adding balsamic vinegar to roast potatoes before cooking to turn them back and get added flavour.

Tom Kitchin swears by doing roasties in a microwave, using the Combination Microwave setting for 30 minutes.

And Heston Blumenthal? Well, he told The Sun to pop potato peels in to the water while they're parboiling for added flavour.

We're definitely going to be giving the marmite trick a go...

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