# Best way to do baked potatoes?



## hawtsauc3 (May 3, 2019)

I'm going to do up 2 racks of ribs and to simplify cooking i was thinking of doing some baked potatoes. Is there a good easy way to make them on the smoker over the last 2 hours the ribs are cooking? If not i can dice up potatoes in the oven, it'd just be nice to not have to run back and forth.


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## smokerjim (May 3, 2019)

you could start them in the micro wave for 5 or ten minutes then just through them in the smoker to finish, you could wrap them foil if you don't want the smoke on them, but I don't know why you wouldn't good luck


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## krj (May 3, 2019)

Rub them down with butter, salt/pepper them, wrap them completely in foil and throw them on the smoker. You're probably looking at 4 hours of cook time at 250 degree smoker temp.


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## johnmeyer (May 3, 2019)

krj said:


> Rub them down with butter, salt/pepper them, wrap them completely in foil and throw them on the smoker. You're probably looking at 4 hours of cook time at 250 degree smoker temp.


If you wrap them in foil, then what's the point in putting them in the smoker?


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## krj (May 3, 2019)

johnmeyer said:


> If you wrap them in foil, then what's the point in putting them in the smoker?



To cook them just like you would in an oven. This consolidates all of his cooking area, and uses less fuel to cook.


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

I haven't been very impressed with my 250-275F attempts at cooking baked potatoes concomitantly with meat in my smoker.  Even with protracted (8-10 hr) cook times, they still seem sort of underdone.  I like the Microwave idea, I'll have to try it out.


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## desertlites (May 3, 2019)

concomitantly, sure don't see or hear that there word much in these parts. I agree, trying to Bake a potato at low temps just don't seem to get it done.


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

Well, "Synchronically" might have been a more apt term, as I'm cooking in the same smoker, but likely not on the same rack, but it's Friday and my lethologica is getting the better of me


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## krj (May 3, 2019)

Jonok said:


> I haven't been very impressed with my 250-275F attempts at cooking baked potatoes concomitantly with meat in my smoker.  Even with protracted (8-10 hr) cook times, they still seem sort of underdone.  I like the Microwave idea, I'll have to try it out.



Wow, are you sure they're not just overcooked at that point. I'm just thinking in a 350 degree oven a foil wrapped potato roughly takes an hour or hour and a half. Honestly, we should really be temp probing doneness for baked potatoes. I think you wanna have them at 210 for that perfect spot.


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

Nope, they still just sorta taste crunchy/tough and undercooked...
I wonder if any of the Sous Vide guys on the board know what the perfect potato temp is?

I just sort of assumed (after the second or third time that I tried it with embarrassing results) that the starch wasn't doing much in terms of breaking down and making the potato tender below the boiling point of the water in the spud, and that they just hadn't gotten hot enough. Clearly, since one can boil a potato and make it tender, that temperature is less than 212F , but I suspect it's not too much less

An hour or so in a 375F (461.somethingK without my calculator) oven wrapped or not seems to do the trick for me otherwise.


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

So then do we have to argue about an "Idaho Crutch"?


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## Inscrutable (May 3, 2019)

Does size matter? 
(Potatoes, that is ... get your minds out of the gutter, they’re crowding mine)

Maybe try with some LRT’s ?


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

(Little Red Taters?, guessing here...)  Dude, I am firmly ensconced in the flyover states,    (even though I live in Mi, and they do grow a few potatoes hereabouts... We are not, by any measure, the potato Cogniceti that are our northwestern brothers)  and, outside of major metropolitan areas, we LITERALLY cannot even reliably buy Yukon Golds.


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## xray (May 3, 2019)

My favorite way to do a baked potato is no foil. Rub lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Poke a few wholes with a fork and place the potatoes directly on an oven rack at 400-425F for about an hour. I put a cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch any drips.

This gives the potato a nice crispy exterior and soft interior. I always considered potatoes wrapped in foil to be steamed and not baked...although they’re good too!!

How this translates to a smoker, I don’t know...I never tried it. If I were to try it, I would prep the potatoes like I normally do and cook for 3 hours at your 225-250 smoker temps.


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## Inscrutable (May 3, 2019)

Jonok said:


> (Little Red Taters?, guessing here...)  Dude, I am firmly ensconced in the flyover states,    (even though I live in Mi, and they do grow a few potatoes hereabouts... We are not, by any measure, the potato Cogniceti that are our northwestern brothers)  and, outside of major metropolitan areas, we LITERALLY cannot even reliably buy Yukon Golds.


You are correct ... and sadly deprived!


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

Deprived/Depraved,...."Potato"/"Potaatoe"...

Actually some of the best potatoes I ever had were grown next to the generator shed (where the radiator tank for the single-hit genset sat) in northern Manitoba.  It was the only place in camp besides the septic field where there wasn't permafrost a foot or so down.  Madeline the cabin girl and Jack the cook bickered like hell all summer when they were growing them, but around September, when there weren't any guests but a couple of the hard-core lake trout guys still up fishing,  there were about 5# of little fingerlings that didn't taste at all like the stuff we brought in dried or frozen in March on the winter road.


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

Please.  Try it, and if you can make it work, post it.  I think a palatable smoked baked potato would be a phenomenal contribution to the BBQ world, if not the entire culinary oeuvre.


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## johnmeyer (May 3, 2019)

krj said:


> To cook them just like you would in an oven. This consolidates all of his cooking area, and uses less fuel to cook.


OK, I now understand that, but I don't think I have ever seen a baked potato recipe that calls for less than a 400° oven. I don't think you would get a very good result at 250°, no matter how long the potatoes cooked.


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## chopsaw (May 3, 2019)

Holly2015 said:


> washed dried then drizzled w/ EVOO, salt and pepper then wrapped in HD foil.


I do mine like this , but thrown right on the coals in a Weber kettle . Hot fire . Use tongs to feel when they are done . 
I've done 3 or 4 at a time , and have also loaded it up .  Works great .


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## Jonok (May 3, 2019)

"I do mine like this , but thrown right on the coals in a Weber kettle . Hot fire . Use tongs to feel when they are done . 
I've done 3 or 4 at a time , and have also loaded it up . Works great ."

Unfortunately, as a guy with a succession of MES 30-40s, and only one functional Frankenstein side stick burner, I have no coals to use most of the time when I'm smoking meat...
'Tis a burden we must bear...


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## noboundaries (May 4, 2019)

Baked potatoes in a smoker are the pork butts of the vegetable world: they take WAY longer than expected, especially if you're used to an oven. Time is your friend. I wash, poke 4 times, coat with oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, and throw on the smoker, no foil. The skin gets crunchy and the inside fluffy, but a baked potato at 300F will take 3-4 hours to finish, possibly longer. I've actually had baked potatoes take longer than an 18 lb turkey to finish when loaded at the same time.


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## Jonok (May 4, 2019)

Yeah, you guys that can achieve >275 like to rub it in, don't cha?  Bet you can also cook a chicken thigh without having to first take off the skin, scrape off all the fat, and re-apply it to the meat just so (even though it's not close to crisp), it doesn't come off in it's entirety at your first bite.
Well, at least I know that if I set the darned thing at 250, it's likely to stay there without too much intervention (even if it won't cook a damned potato), and when I'm done with my cooks, I'm left with a few chunks of really nice lump charcoal that I can toss in the Weber kettle...


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## motocrash (May 4, 2019)

The updated version, the Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven ($49.99), features a warming unit closer to a traditional oven that can climb to temperatures of about 375 degrees while the outside of oven “remains only warm to the touch,” according to the AP.


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## Jonok (May 4, 2019)

You're KILLING me, Smalls!


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## Hawging It (May 4, 2019)

chopsaw said:


> I do mine like this , but thrown right on the coals in a Weber kettle . Hot fire . Use tongs to feel when they are done .
> I've done 3 or 4 at a time , and have also loaded it up .  Works great .


Not a scientist project! Put some oil on them and throw on the smoker! When soft, they are ready. Not rocket science. Take care!


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## Jonok (May 4, 2019)

So a man might think, but I have yet to produce an "anywhere near" edible baked potato on a MES.  I'm a Big proponent of not overthinking things, and I have made palatable baked potatoes on anything from hotplates and community microwaves to Coleman stoves and boat exhaust manifolds.  It really does not seem like it's going to happen at any duration in a MES...

(unless maybe I stuck the Spuds in the right lower corner, over the chip loader, and purposely did everything I could, via rapid and intentional overloadingto get an actual fire going in the chip pan...)
It's not like I haven't tried this repeatedly, under all reasonable conditions.
I'm looking for someone who can produce results without sticking the potatoes in an alternate cooker first or after, to prove to me that a succulent MES<275 tater is a possibility.

 (I want pictures, and witness statements)


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## mneeley490 (May 4, 2019)

When my folks used to make baked potatoes, they would shove a large aluminum nail all the way through, lengthwise to conduct heat to the center of the spud. I'm not sure, but they've probably come out and said since then that we were all getting aluminum poisoning, or something. Perhaps there is a stainless steel alternative?

This doesn't solve the low-temp smoker dilemma, but I have made these potato bombs many times, to great acclaim. Maybe coring would do the trick in a smoker?


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## motocrash (May 4, 2019)

mneeley490 said:


> Perhaps there is a stainless steel alternative?


Now that popped an idea into my head,electrifya 1/4-3/8" stainless rod like the weenie cookers.Potatoes are 79% water so they'd steam from the inside out (quickly),given you poked enough holes in them to prevent an explosion.You could do this whilst baking them in the oven...ahh to be a younger man and have the time for silly experiments such as this.


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## chopsaw (May 4, 2019)

Hawging It said:


> Not a scientist project! Put some oil on them and throw on the smoker! When soft, they are ready. Not rocket science. Take care!


If that was directed at me , I don't need any help .


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