I love the russet potato. It is my favourite for almost everything. Baked, Scalloped, Mashed, french fried, potato salad, etc..... It is the only potato that I buy through out the year. The only exception is the fingerlings, baby yukons, and blues that I buy at the farmers market in the summer. But the Russet is definitely my "standard" potato.

Ann

Another Russet user here....but I also like youkon gold for roasting and salad.
If I had to have only one potato...it would be Russet....but since I can chooce I like different kinds.
I love a red wrapped in foil and baked too...
Linda C

Russets for stew, baking and mashed, Yukon Golds for potato salad (or russets), and red skinned for potatoes Fontecchio.

I'm an equal opportunity spud muncher. I tried Yukons in stew once, it wasn't right.

Russet's are okay, but I prefer Yukon Gold, White potatoes and Reds. The last bag of Russet's the wife picked up looked like they were picked and thrown directly in the bag. So much dirt and crud on the skins they kinda turned me off a bit. I like a 'tater that I can clean and if desired...eat the skin. No chance with the russets'. Those babies gotta be pealed.

I finished off that bag last night though. Mashed potatoes with a fall-apart boneless pork roast with...ta-da...Canned peas LOL!

Duane

I prefer the Michigan White's for mashed, when I can get them, but use russets when I can't. For potato salads I use red potatoes and for baking and FF's it's always russets.

Nancy

I use whatever I grow for everything, until I'm out and have to buy potatoes, LOL. Right now my current favorite is Red Pontiac because they are prolific, grow well in our climate, and I'm "into" roasted potatoes so I just scrub them up, cut them into chunks, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast 'em. I've been adding butternut squash because I have a bumper crop of that too!

If I have to buy potatoes I get russets for french fries, I like the Michigan whites for stews and potato soup. Yukon Gold for mashed, anything red for potato salad, roasted potatoes. Russets are my choice for baking too.

As for growing your own, well, they are kind of a PIA since potatoes are so cheap around here, but the flavor is far superior to store-bought. Be prepared to do battle with the Colorado potato beetle if you plant potatoes, and they'll eat everything. In fact, they'll leave the potatoes to eat eggplant. Yes, that's the voice of experience.

Here is part of this year's crop of Red Pontiac, they were monsters and I got 4 five gallon buckets of potatoes from 3 pounds of seed potatoes!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Annie

The part about the Russet, or any other potato, being of low nutritional value was news to me, so I did a little research and can't find anything to verify that idea; only that where a potato is grown can have some effect.

What I did find about this apparent powerhouse of nutrients:

Potato, raw, with peel
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 80 kcal 320 kJ
Carbohydrates 19 g
- Starch 15 g
- Dietary fiber 2.2 g
Fat 0.1 g
Protein 2 g
Water 75 g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.08 mg 6%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.03 mg 2%
Niacin (Vit. B3) 1.1 mg 7%
Vitamin B6 0.25 mg 19%
Vitamin C 20 mg 33%
Calcium 12 mg 1%
Iron 1.8 mg 14%
Magnesium 23 mg 6%
Phosphorus 57 mg 8%
Potassium 421 mg 9%
Sodium 6 mg 0%

Percentages are relative to US
recommendations for adults.

At the tour of Brigham Young's house in St. George two weeks ago, we were told that BY made the mistake of peeling potatoes and eating the peelings himself, giving the white only part of potatoes to his wives and children, who then suffered from malnutrition. I thought this might be a folk tale.

I never buy Russets, but then I seldom buy potatoes. When I do, I buy new potatoes with thin skins or Yukon Golds or fingerlings. I suppose Russets would be better for Latkes, but Yukon Golds work fine. I made steamed new potatoes on Sunday to have with tuna steaks, for a change from rice.

Lars

I rarely buy a russet potato. I mainly use them for baking potatoes. My favorite are Kennebecs with Yukon Gold running a close second. I prefer almost any potato over a russet.

Russet is my go to potato. I also love Yukon Gold. Fingerlings and red baby potatoes also.

I haven't met a potato, I didn't like. LOL
I do buy way more waxy potatoes then russets though..
We like smashed garlic taters..which are red with the skins on..

Taters are just good eatin! LOL
In my pantry right now is one very large russet, and a pound and a half of small to med purple potatoes.

Just thinking, bunnyman: your tale of the defrocked Munger Potato Queen has moved me.

Vanessa Williams gained a certain amount of notoriety when some risque pictures of her came out in an adult magazine. She was then summarily dethroned as Miss America. The publicity, though, may well have launched her career--(quick: can you name another Miss America from the past 20 years? Didn't think so.)

Will that poor dethroned Munger Potato Queen be able to capitalize on the publicity, or will she live out her life in shame and regret? As the old ballad goes, "She's more to be pitied than censured..."

Here is a link that might be useful: She's more to be Pitied than Censured

I keep wondering if potatoes are supposedly so nutritionally poor, then why did the Irish starve without them, other than they had nothing else to eat, either. They are considered one of "white" foods that has been banned from a lot of diets as being too high on the glycemic index due to being a simple carbohydrate, but I feel that their nutritional value makes upfor that. Besides, they're so versitile.

I use Russett for baking, or Yukon Gold, and Yukon Gold for most everything, plus I love red new potatoes boiled with green beans, onions and herbs. Any of the waxy potatoes are good for salad. The think I like the most about Yukon Gold is they don't need butter. Why limit yourself to just one kind of potato?

I like to grow potatoes, too. I grow Red LaSoda and White Kennebec, which are the variety of seed potatoes available to me. I'd like to grow other kinds, but don't know if they would do here.