From mashed potatoes to potato salads, most potato side dishes start with one crucial step—boiling the potatoes. It seems like a simple and straightforward task, right? If you thought that all you ...

So many potato-based recipes start with the same step: “Boil the potatoes.” You see it time and again in recipes for mashed potatoes, potato salad, and more. But it’s not a straightforward technique.

Nick Blackmer is a librarian, fact-checker, and researcher with more than 20 years of experience in consumer-facing health and wellness content. We love to mash, roast, bake, and fry sweet potatoes, ...