Cooking Potatoes in Water vs. Salted Water

J

j.

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Is there a difference in the reduction of solanine? According to this paper, peeling the potato and cooking it in salter water removes 36% of the solanine. Is that more than what is removed by cooking it in water without salt and adding the salt later?

Glycoalkaloids in potato tubers: The effect of peeling and cooking in salted water

The important glycoalkaloids in potatoes are α-solanine and α-chaconine. Their natural function is probably to serve as stress metabolites or phytoalexins for the protection of the potato when attacked by insects, fungi, etc. They contribute flavour to potatoes but at higher concentrations cause bitterness and are toxic to humans. α-Solanine and α-chaconine appear to have two main toxic actions, one on cell membranes and another one on acetylcholinesterase. Symptoms of α-solanine/α-chaconine poisoning involve an acute gastrointestinal upset with diarrhea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. An instrumental high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was applied for the quantification of α-solanine and α-chaconine in peeled potato skin, raw potato pulp and cooked peeled potato tubers. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for α-solanine and α-chaconine was found to be 5.0 mg kg −1 for each glycoalkaloid. In this study the factors of potential loss of α-solanine and α-chaconine in potato tubers during peeling (factor=0.8) and cooking into edible stage in salted water (factor=0.8) were examined. The combined loss factor of peeling and cooking for sum of both glycoalkaloids in potato tubers was 0.64. These factors were practically used for the probabilistic exposure assessment of the intake of potato glycoalkaloids in the Czech Republic.
 
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J

j.

Guest
When I made the potato juice, I cooked it with some coconut oil. Then I let it in the fridge, and the coconut oil solidified and floated to the top. When I tasted it, it was pretty bad, so I wonder if that was due to the solanine, if the solanine concentrated in the coconut oil. This makes me wonder whether there is some other way to use coconut oil, other than frying, to remove solanine form cooked potatoes (not the juice, the whole potato).
 

pboy

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interesting...could be true, because I've heard of deep fried potatoes...like fries at a restaurant, will eventually contain toxic levels of solanine because all the solanine that has leeched out from the potatoes throughout the day eventually concentrates in the oil. I supposed you'd lose some fat soluble vitamins by cooking in fat then straining off, but potatoes don't really have many to begin with anyways...so that could be beneficial in theory, though I've never tried it. I think simply peeling and removing a good centimeter or too under the skin, and avoiding potatoes with nodules on them, is probably the most significant factor

if you wanted to experiment...probably cooking in water with some oil, mashing...then letting it sit, cool, and rise, maybe stirring occasionally, then skimming and removing the fat once its cooled and risen, then possible reheating the potatoes in fresh water or oil after that and seeing how it tastes. I guess that's sort of what you did by letting it sit in the fridge then tasting the risen fat
 
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J

j.

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pboy said:
I guess that's sort of what you did by letting it sit in the fridge then tasting the risen fat

The difference is that that was potato juice. What I wonder now is whether just putting some oil when boiling the whole potato, not just the juice, makes a difference.
 

AinmAnseo

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Glycoalkaloids are found throughout the potato tubers, but concentrate in the sprouts, peel and the area around the potato ‘eyes' (Figure 2). In normal tubers, glycoalkaloids are concentrated in a small 1.5 mm layer immediately under the skin (i.e. 30 to 80% of the glycoalkaloids are found in the outer peel). According to a study conducted by the CFS in 2007, the glycoalkaloid content (alpha-solanine and alpha-chaconine) of five cultivars of tubers available in the Hong Kong market ranged from 26 to 88 mg/kg fresh weight. While glycoalkaloids were below 10 mg/kg in the flesh of these potatoes, glycoalkaloids in the peel varied between 90 and 400 mg/kg. Peeling of potatoes will greatly reduce the levels of glycoalkaloids present.

 
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