Boil your spuds in vinegar, then roast

This genius method for making salt and vinegar oven fries or roast potatoes brings all the puckering tang of vinegar without the sog.

Sour and salty, no sog. Source: Camellia Aebischer

Salt and vinegar chips are no longer bound to a fuchsia-coloured packet jail, defined as a lowly snack or party food. Now, you can turn any potato side, baked, roasted or fried, into a salt & vinny sensation. All you have to do is boil them in the vinegar – genius right.

It’s a technique borrowed from 101 Cookbooks author Heidi Swanson, published by Heidi Tze (different Heidi) on her blog Apples Under My Bed and is one of our most popular recipes on SBS Food. Tze lets the potatoes steep in the vinegar for 30 minutes after boiling. I tried both steeping and roasting right away with similar results.

Try to get your hands on some starchy potatoes for a crispier result, waxy will be nicer for chunky roast potato but if you’re aiming more for chip then starchy is the ticket.

It’s hard to figure out what’s what in Australia as we don’t really sell potatoes by their various names, but the large brushed potatoes available at most supermarkets are typically your best bet. They’re likely either Sebago or Russet Burbank variety, both of which are floury and good for chipping.

Small white potatoes, red-skinned varieties and kipflers are typically not going to give you a good crispy shell but still delicious when given the salt and vinegar treatment.

All I could find in a pinch were the white ones but no complaints. Source: Camellia Aebischer

How to make salt and vinegar potatoes

Take your potatoes and cut to the preferred size – Heidi recommends thick coins.

Place in a pot and cover completely with white vinegar, then bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and optionally let potatoes steep for an additional 30 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and let them dry slightly. Toss in olive oil and salt to season then bake at 200°C for 20 minutes, flip, then bake an additional 10 minutes, or until crispy and golden. My coins could’ve taken 5 minutes less but cest la vie.

If you want to go all out, cut the potatoes into chips, boil, lay flat on a tray and cool uncovered overnight to dry them out. From there, fry them as you would a regular potato chip. Try Gabriel Gate’s Belgian frites recipe here.

So many dip opportunities here. Source: Camellia Aebischer

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