This post is an addition to my popular instructable Hash Browns: The Holy Grail of Breakfast. The instructable shows the best technique I know for making hashbrowns on the fly. But if you want to prepare a day ahead of time, you can make your hash browns a smidge better (thanks for the tip, dropkick!).
The trick is pretty simple. The night before you're ready to make your hash browns,
The trick is pretty simple. The night before you're ready to make your hash browns,
BOIL THE POTATOES WHOLE
- Boil water
- Add whole potatoes
- Check after ~30 minutes (stab with a fork: you want them soft, but not mushy)
- Drain and rinse with cold water
Next, you need to cool the potatoes down.
REFRIGERATE THE POTATOES
Once your potatoes are nice and cold (a couple hours in the fridge), you can make hash browns at your leisure. When you're ready, just grate them as you normally would:
GRATE THE POTATOES
This is the point where rinsing the potato shreds would be super important, if you hadn't pre-boiled them (see my instructable for more detail). As it turns out, boiling the potatoes seems to accomplish the same thing as rinsing them does, so if you've boiled, there's no need to rinse. But don't take my word for it: compare the rinsed and un-rinsed versions of the next several steps.
The next step is to cook the hash browns as you normally would. Put oil, bacon grease, butter, or something else that sounds tasty in a pan. Get it hot before adding your potato (you can check this by adding a few shreds... they should sizzle). Then dump your potato shreds into patties and cook on medium for a few minutes each side. (For more cooking tips, see my instructable).
COOK THE HASH BROWNS
ENJOY
That's it! I really think pre-boiling is the way to go if you're the plan-ahead type: the pre-boiled potato shreds seemed to cook a bit faster and more evenly, and it's easier to get that diner-style, crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside patty that every good American loves.