Would you say it was... a hassle?
Yes, yes I would.
"YYYEEAAAHHH!"
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I would disagree. Hassleback are less work than mashed and are a great addition to Reverse sear and butter baste dishes.
It was tasty, I just thought it did not produce sufficient flavor for what I expected with all that extra surface area.
I feel like simply parboiling quartered potatoes and roasting them with beef fat is a little bit better "return on investment".
I enjoyed making it. I love trying different things even if they aren't what I hope.
The two I called out provide a great return on investment for the Beef in question.
I tried this too and was similarly unimpressed! Good, but not amazing.
IMO the best flavour to work ratio for potatoes is to cube them and toss them into an Actifry with either beef fat or coconut oil and salt. Get a ton of crispy surface with about 5 minutes of active work, including cleanup.
Mashed is also super easy despite the above comment and is probably my go-to way to eat potatoes. Cube, pressure cook 7 min, mash with milk and butter. And I grow a ton of potatoes so I eat them almost every day 😁
Apples & oranges, to be fair. You can't compare a cream process with a simple fat process, especially when the latter is a minimalist approach and the former is recognized almost solely by its presentation. All due respect, but the critique sounds more like a preference, underneath. I hope you try this recipe again and pull from the constructive advice elsewhere in this thread. Good luck! Have fun!
How is doing...that...to a potato less work than cutting a few into large chunks, boiling in salt water, then mashing with some butter, milk, salt, pepper, garlic, and sour cream?
I feel like in terms of strict effort, doing the slicing on one potato, not even counting the cooking, is more of a bother than the entire process of making a big batch of mashed potatoes.
Because you are already doing half the work to make them as a part of cooking the meat in either of those scenarios. You may not even need to dirty another pan if you are using cast iron.
So I guess you ain't no hassleback girl, you ain't no hassleback girl!
Can get the same crispiness just using a mandolin to completely slice it up. Leaving it connected makes little sense, considering how much more effort it takes cutting it by hand.
I would never make this again.
I mean, I could tell based on my understanding of physics and cooking that it was not going to turn out as one would hope.
But I plowed through and made it anyways. In the end, every single concern I had about this preparation rang true.
I knew going in that it couldn't possibly cook consistently because the bottom would be a solid mass and the top would be split apart with varying gaps.
I knew that convection would not carry the moisture away from the bottom of the fins but it would desiccate the tops properly. I felt that the tops 1/3 would have crispy delicious skins but the base would have tough leather. I was right.
I knew that both ends would be rock hard and inedible but it had to be that way in order for the thicker parts to absorb enough heat.
I knew that applying an oil to the top was a very delicate game because it would just saturate into a grease pool if it dripped/pooled to the lower part.
I feel like this is a misbegotten recipe. A big series of fanciful ideas that are visually impressive but do not deliver in the taste department. Seems like it's from a time before cooking science was well understood.
Mandolin and a skewer to keep them togehther-ish in the oven.
it's how I keep onion rings together while grilling them. (actually, i use poultry dressing scewers for that. they're the perfect size. Tab them through the layers, then slice between them. Marinade in salt, vinegar and olive oil. Grill on high till... uh... grilled.)
The Crispy underside is the point of Hasselbeck Potatoes. They are really just better fried baked potatoes that focus on maximizing surface area to bond rendered fat. That said they can be extremely good with butter/garlic or bacon fat.
Gourmet potato chips
Gourmet potato chips
Yet without the key prep-work that makes good chips and french fries taste so great. In other words, standard-recipe Hassleback doesn't include the classic 2-3 steps of getting the starch out via cold water baths before cooking. Do that, and I bet this tastes worlds better.
This would also work well in an air-fryer, I think. You'd brush lightly with oil of choice, cooking a few minutes, turn upside down, re-brush and re-cook until eventually done to preference. That way you'd get a nice even bake.
I do something similar with spiralised potatoes, and they taste great. The cold-water baths are certainly some extra work, but if you do several taters at once I think it works out pretty well.
They look so sad and not nearly enough cream. I usually slice all my potatoes, toss them in the cream mixture, then stack them in the dish Hasselback style and they always come out perfect, Crispy on top, creamy and moist in the middle and bottom
I made a ton of them while learning knife skills. They are way too much work versus tastier options, but they look pretty.
Puts the hassle in Hassleback.
It's not that difficult to do, just requires some knife skills and not rushing. But I never liked the finished results. It's crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside.
This is quite literally the same thing I made for dinner tonight as well. I’m sorry you struggled with the potatoes. Even with chopsticks it can be a little challenging. A very sharp knife makes all the difference.
Did you freehand the cuts or use the chopsticks/skewers assisted method?
Been a home cook for a long time and I make everything from scratch so thank you very much for that :)
Yes freehand cuts. I think it's just doing it a million preps, my tools are el cheapo $5 German steel knives and I use a metal wheel quick sharpener and a pro hone. I'm a bit of a sinner lol
I don't have time to fuss, and I'll just throw out my knife and get a new one every 3 years
I remember my mom trying to make Hasslback potatoes.
It turned out not well. (No cream, her knife skills are... well lets just say 1/2 was as thin as they got. oh. and did i mention no cream?)
Are you thinking about scalloped potatoes? Hasselback with cream is news to me.
They need something on top.
Personally I love adding shredded cheddar for the last bit so it gets baked on, sour cream and chives.
