Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?

[William Ryan]

Another UK opinion on this is that in my family we have always regarded 
potatoes baked in their skins as delicacies. I don't know what it was 
like before WW2 but in my childhood we, and most other children, always 
had them with butter, sometimes with the top cut off, the soft inside 
scooped out, mashed with herbs and butter or cheese and replaced in the 
skin before serving. Recipes can be found in cookbooks, and many 
restaurants and pubs serve them with a variety of toppings. 
Unfortunately they usually cook them in a microwave, which leaves the 
skins flabby and not very appealing.

The best way to prepare them, in my opinion, is to prick them all over, 
rub with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, run a metal 
skewer through the middle, then bake in a fairly hot oven for an hour, 
or until the skins are a golden brown and slightly crisp. Cut them in 
half and serve with butter or sour cream with a sprinkling of ground 
black pepper. My wife prefers them with mayonnaise but I consider this 
rather decadent.

I imagine that the baked potato was formerly food for the less affluent, 
but like black pudding, tripe, faggots, pigs trotters, cockles and 
mussels, jellied eels and similar low delicacies, is now finding its way 
onto more refined tables. I read in The Times the other day that the 
French, who have long disdained the humble parsnip, are now discovering 
its wonderful flavour, although I think they are not yet making wine 
from it as we have long done in England. Who knows, perhaps even  
rhubarb, widely regarded in Europe as a noxious weed or at best as a 
folk remedy, but in England as a sort of fruit, may yet win wider approval.

Incidentally, and to bring this thread back to its original Russian 
theme, does anyone know if Russian Old Believers still condemn potatoes? 
At one time they called them Devil's apples and, according to one 
polemic tract, thought that potatoes grew from an unmentionable part of 
a dead koldun.

Will Ryan

On 07/02/2010 19:32, John Langran wrote:
> If you want a UK opinion on this, we always thought that potato skins 
> were an American delicacy
> JL
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michele A. Berdy" <maberdy at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 7:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?
>
>
>>> Anybody else find this conversation a bit odd (at least in the 
>>> passion that
>>> people are putting into potato skins)?
>>
>> Actually, I was thinking about how much I loved this list. I never 
>> knew that the question of peeling vegetable and fruit skins was so 
>> interesting!
>>
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