A Guide to Potatoes and How to Find the Right One for Every Dish

Potatoes are one of the most versatile, cheap, and readily available vegetables all over the world. And since there are so many types of potatoes in the market, it makes it tricky to understand which potato you should use with which cooking method. Let 5-Minute Crafts enlighten you about potato varieties and how to make the most of this legendary vegetable.

1. Russet

Russet is a long and oval-shaped variety with a medium to large size. It bears rough brown skin and a white or pale yellow interior. Russets also absorb a lot of liquid which gives them a light and soft texture.

🥔These potatoes are quite starchy and are ideal for baked potatoes and French fries. They’re also perfect for mashing because of their low-moisture content.

2. Yukon Gold

This is one of the most famous potato types. They bear a gold skin that doesn’t require peeling before you mash them. The creamy content of this potato bears a sweet and buttery flavor. You can use any cooking method for these gold potatoes as they are super-versatile. This is why they’re widely used in restaurants and commercial kitchens.

🥔Yukon Gold is perfect for boiling, baking, frying, mashing, and roasting.

3. Kennebec

This potato variety is medium-sized and bears light brown skin, a white and starchy interior, and a nutty flavor.

🥔Kennebecs are ideal for baking, mashing, and frying. They rule the potato chip market.

4. All-blue

This potato bears dark purple skin as well as purple flesh. This is because it’s loaded with antioxidants and anthocyanin. This flavonoid can also be found in blueberries, eggplant, and red onion. Blue potatoes also have a lot of starch, which is why they make a vivid blue mash.

🥔They’re ideal for boiling, baking, roasting, frying, and mashing.

5. Red-bliss

In the US, these potatoes are harvested when they’re young — hence they’re categorized as “new potatoes.” This potato variety has low starch and is ideal for boiling, making it perfect for potato salad.

🥔You can use them for mashing too, but know that they can get gummy easily. They’re also used for roasting and baking.

6. German Butterball

This is a type of yellow potato that comes in a medium-round shape. It bears a thin skin and flaky texture, and there is a fine webbing that covers the entire potato. It also has a buttery flavor and can be used in any suitable recipe.

🥔German Butterball is ideal for baking, boiling, frying, roasting, and mashing.

7. Red Thumb

This variety has ruby skin, marbled pink and white flesh, and a tubular shape. They have a low starch content and are sweeter. Since they bear a buttery flavor and creamy texture, red thumbs are versatile and can be used in many cooking methods like roasting and braising. They also look great in potato salads.

🥔They’re also great for grilling, pan-frying, boiling, and roasting.

8. Purple Peruvian

This potato variety has the purple skin and flesh of a blue potato and a small and slender shape, like a fingerling. While other types of fingerlings have waxy flesh, the Purple Peruvian is dry and often compared to a Russet potato — making them ideal for mashing or deep frying.

🥔They can also be used for baking, chipping, and roasting.

9. Japanese Sweet

It is also called satsumaimo in Japan, among many other names. They bear red-purple skin and yellow flesh. They’re also fluffier and starchier than orange sweet potatoes, and they have a candy-like sweetness.

🍠Japanese Sweet potatoes can also be used for baking, roasting, deep-frying, and mashing.

10. Hannah Sweet

These sweet potatoes contain a firm and dense texture like white potatoes and retain their shape better than the rest of the sweet potato varieties. You can dice or cube cut them, and you can also add them to soups, stews, or stir-fries. Their firm texture makes their cooking times longer.

🍠Hannah sweet potatoes are ideal for mashing, baking, pureeing, deep-frying, simmering, and roasting.

11. Jewel Yams

Jewel yams are not yams but sweet potatoes. They’re large and oval-shaped, with tapered ends, copper skin, and orange flesh that makes them look bright when cooked.

🍠They’re ideal for baking, roasting, and mashing. You can also use them to make sweet potato pies.