Why I prick the jacket potato before the oven

The tray is already hot — you want to throw the potato in whole “for an hour and done”. Sometimes the skin bursts in the oven: steam pops, the flesh at the edges dries, the middle stays dense. Ahead of time I make a few small pricks through the skin with a fork — the steam leaves quietly, the tuber bakes without a pop.

Why I prick the jacket potato before the oven. Sausage before the pan I score along the casing — another story at the board; potatoes I keep in a dark crate — another storage note; yesterday’s roast potato I reheat another way — another lunch; raw meat I blot before the heat — another habit. Here it is only the tuber skin and small holes: quiet steam, an even middle.

If the pop already happened — I lower the heat a little, finish baking, I don’t wipe the edge juice for nothing. I don’t pierce deep to the heart: the skin is enough. I’m not comparing a new variety from the market here — I mean the potatoes from our crate.

I don’t need a tuber with a torn skin and a dry centre. I need a potato from which the kitchen still smells of even crust. In your kitchen before the oven do you prick the jacket — or already put the whole tuber in “to be quicker”?