Baked Potatoes?
 

I've got to cook 30 baked potatoes for an event, any idea on time and temp cooking using my standard kitchen oven? I've never had to cook that many and have no idea.

Also, how long can I keep them cooked and wrapped in foil in a warming oven without them going mushy/bad/over cooked on me.

Any help would be great!

350-400 for around and hour and you shold be fine.

I would rub them down with butter and a light sprinkling of salt and then wrap them in foil prior to baking...

The foil would keep the moisture in, the salt/butter keep the skin from getting over cooked... I would say that in a cambro you should be able to keep them 3 hours... if you set the warming oven to 145* more than likely the same 3 hours... Any higher temp and you are going to loose some of the time you can hold it...

Cooked them at 450, the 30 of them took up my whole oven. Coated with oil, forked them, wrapped in foil and cooked till 'done' ended up taking 2 hours to cook. Held in a cooler with towels for 3 hours with no problems! Thanks for the help!

Put down some old towels in the bottom of the cooler first or you will do some damage. I would treat the taters as if you were holding meat, they will hold their temp all day in a decent cooler.

The best part about baked taters is they are easy and take up very little prep time. That said, try to put a nice spin on them. I haven't prepared them for catering although I have been tempted and following this post, I probably will soon. I would probably coat them in olive oil followed by kosher salt, granulated garlic and course ground pepper. Then wrap in foil. This usually comes out good. Then again once the taters are baked they can be sliced and made into a casserole.

I would also cook the taters all the way prior to holding them. They should still be too hot to touch many hours later. Dont forget to roll them prior to serving so that they are flakey. And whatever you do "DO NOT MICROWAVE THE TATERS!!!!" It just isn't the same.

Hey Tony, can you splain this?

Good point!
I think what he is talking about is rolling them on a either a cutting board or counter top with a little pressue to break up the 'meat' but not bust up the skin... I helps with the presentation when they are opened...

If you really want flaky you want NOT to foil prior to cooking your potatoes. Foiling prior to cooking locks the moisture in and 'steams' the spud. Cooking bare will crisp the skin AND allow the natural moisture to escape during cooking. This results in a much nicer baked spud, IMHO. If the occasion allows, I wrap the spuds in foil sheets upon removal from the oven/cooker.

The alternative is to foil with a good coating of rock or kosher salt prior to wrapping. This allows the salt to absorb some of the moisture. Even then, I prick the foil a bit to allow the steam to escape during the cooking process.

I haven't done baked taters yet. I've never had an extra smoker to do them in at the higher temp. Now that I got my 570, I can do all kinds of cool stuff in the LBGE when we have company. Cool!

By the way, what if you're smoking something at regular "smoking" temps. Can you do baked taters at that temp just by cooking them longer (so you don't need the second smoker), or does that fark them up?

Do not wrap your potatoes for BAKED potatoes, if you wrap, what you will have is steamed potatoes. Wrap in foil after the cook to keep warm if needed. I wash my taters, fork them, rub them with Olive oil, nail with S&P and let them bake away for about an hour. I try to do them without ever having to wrap them. A good skin is great on the potato if cooked correctly. Good luck

I have to disagree with you guys... when it comes to catering you have to look at other aspects of the job, as in prep time should be minimized, therefore wrap'm and bake'm. That way they can sit a while if need be, plus they are much cleaner while in the cooler cutting back on clean-up times etc...

I have also never had a problem with baked taters that have been wrapped prior to baking. My big issue has always been with microwaved taters which tend to be flakey yet dry for some reason. Many restaurants do this and they really are not that good. I will send them back at a restaurant when they arrive this way.

True rolling them is a matter of giving them a gentle squeeze as you roll them therefore they are nice and flakey. This really can't be properly done unless they are wrapped in foil....

Tony, I get your point about prep and time management for large gigs. You may note that I said that I will wrap as I pull the 'taters out of the oven/cooker, IF I can time manage it that way. 90% of the time, this is not a problem, and IMHO it results in a much better end product.

As I said, if I can NOT time manage it this way, I coat the spuds with rock salt as I wrap them in foil. Then poke a few fork holes in the foil to allow the moisture to vent as the potatoes cook. The rock salt allows some space for air circulation around the outside of the skin as well as adding a moisture absorbing flavor maker against the skin.

Reality is, as has been pointed out earlier, potatoes held in a properly sized cooler will hold their heat for HOURS. As was also pointed out earlier, lining the bottom of the cooler with towels is a MUST! I also layer a clean dish towel between layers of spuds as I stack them up. In addition to helping with heat retention, doing this allows the towels to absorb some of the moisture that will get trapped inside once the cooler lid is closed.

I'm sure it sounds like I am paranoid about moisture when it comes to baked potatoes. And, in some ways, I suppose I am. The last thing I want to do is to serve a mushy, damp spud to a client or their guest. IMHO, if you are going to serve 'bakers', they should be light and fluffy. A damp potato simply can't achieve this quality.

I gotcha, again, I am really considering doing them for one of my upcoming gigs. I will take all that you said under consideration. One of the main reasons I was considering going with the spuds is that they are low maintenance. Thanks again.

i say fark the baked taters, there are many better options!!!!!:)