Any Hash Brown Junkies Here?

Some great ideas here, thanks for posting.

Ironically, the best hash browns I make every year are up at the fishing camp I manage in the Canadian sub-arctic. Years ago someone brought in a whole case of 1 gallon cartons of dehydrated has browns from a food service company.

Apparently whoever brought them didn’t realize there are about 30 servings in each carton. Or the REALLY didn’t want to run out. I think there were 12 boxes in that case, we’ve been eating them every summer for at least 5 years and I believe we’re finally down to the last 2 boxes.

Vintage aged dehydrated hash browns are pretty good though. Better than the bagged frozen stuff by far.

Lord the wallet up there are so good too.

Something to note about potatoes is that if you boil them in water with a little baking soda, they brown much easier when fried. I wonder if that would work if you just soak them raw in water and baking soda.

Potatoes are filthy with starch. Whether you slice, dice or shred them raw, they’ll drip with juice laced with starch and is why most people at least rinse any peeled or processed raw potatoes. The starch will interact with the air and turn raw, exposed potato flesh a dark color, almost a black. A lot has to do with the type of spud too as some have less starch than others.

There are a ton of opinions on how to use the fresh processed potatoes and, really, none right or none wrong…. totally personal preference.

Personally, when I am making the fresh machine shredded hashbrowns I like to soak them in milk for an hour at room temperature, then give a good rinse/drain well right before tossing them in the pan with hot butter. I cover the pan to brown the first side, and when the potatoes have been flipped I leave uncovered to finish.

Now, if you decide to shred the spuds and just toss them right into the pan without rinsing the starch off, you can end up with potatoes that are coated with an almost slimy juice on them that is darned hard to cook off or get to brown.

Scattered, smothered and covered, if you know, you know! I also love the crispy diner hashbrowns, but haven’t been able to replicate them either.

Huntindave wrote:

Just give the first pan a yank upward like you are settling a fish hook.
The entire mass of potatoes flies up in the air while doing a somersault. Catch the somersaulting potatoes in the same pan, when the browned side is up.
Yes, it is a learned technique.

If I tried this I would end up cleaning them up off the floor.

Is there a particular type of potato that is best for hashbrowns?

CaptainMusky wrote:

Is there a particular type of potato that is best for hashbrowns?

I only use Russet, but admit I have never done them from raw potato

B-man instead of bacon grease or butter why not a healthy oil that has a high smoke point like peaunut or avacado?

Ok-just wanted to see if skipping bacon grease for California oil (avacado) would get me kicked off this site! So kidding aside clarified butter & bacon grease both have very strong flavor I would consider adding a neutral oil like Avacado (Aldi for a good price) or maybe canola. Good luck!

tim hurley wrote:

Ok-just wanted to see if skipping bacon grease for California oil (avacado) would get me kicked off this site!

Might still be in review status Tim.

Nothing wrong with Avocado Oil. For high temps it’s the best oil you can use – incredibly high smokepoint, no taste and much better for you than veg oils. Spendy though. I only use it for pan frying.

So saying a combo of clarified butter and Avacado would be awesome. Clarified butter or Gee is also spendy in the stores, better to make your own, keeps for months in the fridge. Not sure that you need high heat anyway for this, think last time I followed a recipe that called for MH, and had good results.

Love all the talk about hashbrowns, but I am still partial to any good place that has all day breakfast. I have a pretty good list 5 min to 200 miles from my house. Over easy eggs, toast, and hashbrowns.

If any of you pass through Cloquet which I’m sure you do on your way north the Family Tradition restaurant just on the edge of town past Gordy’s has the best hash browns on the planet. Same with scrambled eggs. Who ever is running that griddle in the back deserves a medal. We know the owner and run into him every now and again if we are out having a cocktail. I’m seriously going to ask him if I can spend a morning in their kitchen watching how they run the griddle for breakfast.

I will add I’ve had pretty good luck with Simply Potato hash browns in a cast iron pan with butter and some canola oil.

Lots of restaurants bake extra potatoes the night before they serve breakfast. Peel and grate, then fry in any of the methods listed in the above… My favorite is to add onions (Lyonnaise) cheese on top and then rebutter and add sour cream to them for evening dining. For breakfast, toss your favorite over easy/sunnyside up eggs on top and enjoy!!!

Mark

Well tonight I stopped and grabbed a bag of potatoes today on the way home from fishing with the boys

They had the neighbor girl over and we had a fish fry and tried some of the new tricks mentioned on some hashbrowns.

I julienned them, rinsed a few times, soaked in some water with baking soda for 15 minutes while cutting fish, rinsed, and squeezed (in cheesecloth)

Then I fried them in clarified butter for 5 minutes on medium high in a pan (covered), flipped and cooked uncovered for another 4 minutes or so.

They were the best from scratch raw taters that I’ve made to date

Honestly don’t know where to go from here.

They were exactly like the best ones you could get in a cafe, and most cafe’s cheat with prepared hashbrowns like you buy in a store.

It’s hard to say what made them so great since I changed more than one variable from my last batch, but dang they were awesome! The clarified butter made a difference in being able to cook longer without burning the hashbrowns or the butter.

I haven’t tried Avocado oil yet, but like the sounds of that too. A couple times I’ve tried normal canola oil and didn’t care for the taste/results.

My next challenge will be finding a way to cook them in bulk (for 4+ people). My first thought is getting an electric skillet that has a cover, my stove top skillet doesn’t have one.

The cover let’s you skip a step (pre-cooking/boiling beforehand) to avoid any raw taste.

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Beef tallow is a great cooking grease. I’d pair beef tallow or bacon grease with butter for the best flavor. I’ve never had the butter burn when doing hash browns.

I’m not a fan of avocado oil myself. I hate the flavor. Stay away from any highly refined plant based oil that’s not expeller pressed. Those are the ones that clog arteries.

Bman those look fantastic! Exactly like how I like them.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Bman those look fantastic! Exactly like how I like them.

Me too

We’re getting her dialed in now

Wish you coulda had a bite

Dang B man now I need some breakfast!

John Rasmussen wrote:

Dang B man now I need some breakfast!

I know! Between this thread, the what’s for supper or smoking thread I get so dang hungry every time someone posts something. Last week I just came across this Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich maker so I ordered it. It came yesterday. Looks pretty slick to make a Egg Mcmuffin Sandwich at home. It will make 2 at a time.

I like to do my hashbrowns on an electric skillet. It is just what I have. I don’t have a cover for it so I use 2 9×12 glass pans for lids. (or one if it is a small batch) I use a mandoline slicer with the small setting to dice the potatoes and onion. They come out about 1/16” x 1/16” strips. Rinse the potatoes in water until the water is clear. Then soak with baking soda for 20 min. Lay them out to dry and pad with paper towels. Put what every I feel like for seasoning (normally garlic, seasoning salt, and garlic bell pepper) with some grape seed oil into a container and shake. Dump that on to the hot skillet with some homemade pork lard on the very top and cover. The pork lard will warm up and slowly keep dripping through the potatoes working its way to the bottom as it cooks. Flip and cook the rest uncovered.

Sounds like I have some new tricks to try.

Now I am hungry.

I came across duck fat when we were doing hardcore keto. Everything I’ve pan fried in it comes out better than with oil, ghee, bacon grease or beef tallow.

I feel like a derailment is in order. Are people generally talking about shredded hashbrowns or homestyle, or country?

Hash browns are always shredded. Diced, sliced or chunked are home fries or country fries in my amateur opinion as the chef de cuisine at home. The word hash comes from the French hacher which means to chop, so even though I’m wrong I’m sticking to my opinion.

I’m with Picklerick

To me hashbrowns are shredded, fried on one side, then flipped once until they’re done.

One variant is hashbrown patties, like you’d get with McDonald’s breakfast. To do those you fry in deeper oil, not just a skim of butter/etc.

We do cubed potatoes a lot as a side with dinner. Those I cut into 3/8″ cubes and cook in a pan or cut them bigger and douse in olive oil on a cookie sheet and bake them.

I always use russets for shredded hashbrowns, but the waxy varieties work well for other methods, especially baking.

Some have mentioned restaurants-I gaurentee you that 99% of all restaurants use the frozen pre-shredded stuff-large, small, independent, greasy spoon, most dump a frozen bag of shredded spuds on a grill. I eat it too just is not what B is talking about. We have a restaurant by our house where a tab for 2 will be close to 50(!) servers walk around with shirts that say ‘everything from scratch” but the hbrowns are not, aaah the potato never gets respect as a vegetable( is my Irish side showing?)

tim hurley wrote:

Some have mentioned restaurants-I gaurentee you that 99% of all restaurants use the frozen pre-shredded stuff-large, small, independent, greasy spoon, most dump a frozen bag of shredded spuds on a grill. I eat it too just is not what B is talking about. We have a restaurant by our house where a tab for 2 will be close to 50(!) servers walk around with shirts that say ‘everything from scratch” but the hbrowns are not, aaah the potato never gets respect as a vegetable( is my Irish side showing?)

I’m a mix of Irish, Scottish, Native American and Dutch. My fondness for beer and potatoes cooked every which way tells me which genes are the strongest in me. As far as getting things as good as restaurants do, I’ve seen a number of chefs say you’d freak out over the amount of butter/oil and salt that’s used in a restaurant kitchen.

So many ways I love the spud too. Yup restaurants use a lot of fat.

B, what kind of potato did you use? Clarified butter is great stuff and keeps well, you like it you can skip the avacado stuff nothing special about the flavor, look into a healthier oil if you are making these a lot (my 2 cents) Seasame is healthy and cheaper, high smoke point, that one has a stronger flavor, how would EVO hold up to MH heat?

Hash browns. Not hash whites is the key. As long as they are crispy, I love em.