ember cook potatos overnight?

[uxhamby]

How can I cook potatoes in the embers of a fire over night? I want to put them in the evening and then have them ready for breakfast but attempts up to now have resulted in rather charred examples by morning.

I recall seeing on Edwardian farm the characters cooking potatoes in brick clay but I don't have any naturally occurring clay in the area and buying clay for the purpose doesn't seem sensible.

Is there a way to moderate the heat to lengthen the cooking time to say 10 hours (w/o turning them)?

Thanks,

Brian H.
Uxbridge Ontario Canada

[MKG]

Hi Brian, and welcome to Ish.

Last time I did anything vaguely like this was as a smallish boy on Guy Fawkes Nights (and I have to say that was before the advent of aluminium cooking foil, which certainly made the job easier). I remember the potatoes taking just about forever to cook - but actually, it can't have been more than 30 to 40 minutes. And there's your problem, I think. Wood embers are hot - really hot - and they're going to cook those potatoes well within an hour if they're placed in the embers, no matter how you wrap 'em.

There may be some mileage in placing the potatoes at the side of the embers rather than in them, but I don't know that and I imagine it would be a hit or miss affair. However, don't take my word for all this - someone may come along with the perfect method. Best of luck.

Mike

[uxhamby]

I'm wondering about building a metal rack with horizontal members which sit stably in the embers and vertical members on which potatoes are impaled, some distance above the embers. In my mind, the radiant heat from the embers is lessened by the distance yet heat is conducted by the metal of the rack into the centres of the spuds, cooking them slowly.

Has anyone ever heard of or used such a device?

Thoughts on practicality of this idea?

Thanks,

Brian H.

[ojay54]

Hi Brian. This is an open fire ,Yes? (it would be far easier if it was a wood burner,You could put them on top.)I think your metal rack/skewer idea may work ,but you'll wreck a few spuds while you experiment.

I think your on to something,I like the idea of waking to a breakfast that's been cooked for free.I 've often wondered if I could cook porridge in a haybox.Good luck with you're experimentation,please keep us up to date with your results..good or bad!

[MKG]

Interesting idea. Looking up starch-breaking temperatures, you need to raise the temperature of the potato to 210 degrees F (a tad less than 98 degrees C) which is, as near as dammit, the boiling point of water. If you don't attain that temperature then the potato will never cook but, on the other hand, if you attain it and then keep it there for too long, the potato will turn into mush - so that crispy skin may be important and moving the potato too far from the embers may not be a good idea.

It's going to be a neat balancing act - but well worth a try, I think.

Mike

[Zech]

Interesting question. I've never tried but I wonder... building on the brick clay idea, how about using a couple of bricks to push the embers aside then putting the potatoes between the bricks? The embers would be heaped up around the bricks, but not actually touching the potatoes. That would delay the start of the cooking time while the bricks heated up. Hopefully they'd get hot enough to then radiate enough heat to cook the potatoes, perhaps a bit more gently than direct contact with the embers. I like your metal rack idea, but bricks are lower tech, and simpler if you have a couple lying around. I'll be interested to hear how your experiments go.