Which Potato is best for which style of cooking

Choosing which potato to grow really comes down to one thing… Taste! Other considerations are where you are going to grow them, as the type of soil and growing conditions can and do have an effect on how a potato tastes. The same variety can taste completely different when grown in two different places.

How to choose the best potato to grow.

Believe it or not, there are around 500 varieties of potato available for us to grow. Howeve,r not all are available everywhere or indeed would do well everywhere. So the seed potatoes available where you live are the ones that will grow in your particular climate etc.

Not only do different varieties have varying tastes, for the reasons already given, because they have different flesh structures and different water content they cook differently too. Some are better for frying, some for boiling and yet others for salads ( waxy potatoes are better than floury ones for salads). They are some that are more multi-purpose.

The tables below list the most common varieties and give an indication of how they can be used.

First Earlies

Second Earlies

Main Crop