Why Your Potatoes Need A Salt Water Soak Before Hitting The Grill

Among the simplest recipes that you can whip up on a grill, grilled potatoes provide maximum returns for minimal effort. It doesn't take much time to cook this tasty, smoky, crispy side dish: Just a spud on a properly set-up grill on high heat until the grate-facing side turns a nice golden-brown shade with dark grill marks. However, some extra prep work will ensure your taters turn out just right. Before they go on the grill, soak them in a bath of salt water.

When you cut into a potato, the microscopic cells within the spud will be damaged and ruptured, which will cause them to release starches into the flesh. All of this extra starch can caramelize and then burn very quickly when exposed to heat. You could wind up with a blackened, charred exterior long before the interior of each potato has finished cooking. The result will be ashy and bitter-tasting on the outside, and still mealy or even crunchy on the inside.

You can protect your grilled potatoes from this awful fate with a simple cold water bath. Add a pinch of salt or other seasonings, which will penetrate into the spuds as they soak, and they might turn out crispier and more flavorful than usual.

After you've cut up your potatoes into desired shapes (like quarters or slices), fill a bowl with cold water and add between 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt, depending on how many potatoes you're working with. Soak the spuds in the briny solution for about half an hour.

A lot of interesting things will happen to the potatoes while they're soaking. The cold water will begin to draw out excess starch and the starchier the kind of potato you use (like Russet, Idaho, or Yukon Gold), the murkier the water will become due to all the drawn starch. At the same time, the salt will also begin to work its magic by pulling moisture from the potato slices via osmosis. Less moisture means crispier potatoes when they hit the grill — food that's wet on the outside will always have a harder time browning. This is the same reason french fry recipes also call for soaking matchstick potatoes before frying.

Once the potatoes have finished soaking, take them out and pat them dry. Grill at medium-high heat on a grill and in a couple of minutes, you should have some beautiful golden-brown, deliciously crispy grilled potatoes ready to be handed out to everyone with an invite to your backyard party.