No Sunday roast is complete without a generous helping of roast potatoes – and many people have opinions on how to get the perfect spud.
Now, researchers say slicing the potato at a 30-degree angle is the secret to success.
The ‘edge cut’ is tastier, crunchier and looks better than the traditional cut which has long been touted by chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, researchers found.
Cutting the spud diagonally increases its surface area by 65 per cent and makes it extra crispy, they claim.
The ‘edge cut’ (pictured right) is tastier, crunchier and looks better than the traditional cut which has long been touted by chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, researchers found
In October Blumenthal revealed his top tips for achieving roasties that are crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, every time.
However, according to students from Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex, Blumenthal has been cutting his spuds all wrong.
They teamed up with the maths department at Samuel Whitbread school and found cutting the potato diagonally at 30 degrees, instead of the traditional 90 degrees proposed by Blumenthal, dramatically increases the surface area.
They tested their theory using 100 portions of roast potatoes prepared using the normal method and another 100 using the new ‘edge cut’ technique.
They then taste tested their product on the general public as well as chefs in the hotel.
According to their results, the new technique produced a potato that scored 6.6 per cent higher in tastiness than the original spud.
‘An added bonus was that the new technique allowed you to be creative with presentation’, researchers found.
‘We would also like to challenge every school in the country to find a better cut for the potato and mathematically prove it raises the surface area while keeping the portions at the same volume.’


This is the traditional way of cutting a roast potato. The label y is 11.5cm long and x is 5cm long. Researchers tested their theory using 100 portions of roast potatoes prepared using the normal method and another 100 using the new ‘edge cut’ technique
In October Blumenthal revealed he subscribes to the tried and tested method of parboiling ahead of roasting, but he says the trick is to extend the boiling time.
While many cooks will agree that parboiling potatoes for 10 minutes is more than enough time, last year Blumenthal told The Guardian they should be left bubbling away for at least 20 minutes.
Living up to his reputation for the unconventional, the chef also recommends adding the potato peelings to the boiling water, a trick he says enhances the flavour.
Blumenthal isn’t the only chef to have an unorthodox approach to his potatoes with The Guardian reporting that MasterChef winner Steven Edwards forgoes parboiling entirely.

They tested their product on the general public as well as chefs in the hotel. This isn’t the first time that people have come forward with cooking hacks for their potatoes


Researchers found cutting the potato diagonally at 30 degrees dramatically increases the surface area. In this image y is 11.5cm and z is 10cm. When potatoes are cut in this way the surface area is 65 per cent greater than the traditional cut

In October Blumenthal revealed his top tips for achieving roasties that are crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, every time
Edwards instead puts his spuds in the microwave for 4-5 minutes so that roasting time is bought down to ten minutes rather than 30.
This isn’t the first time that cooks have come forward with cooking hacks for their potatoes with a food blogger baffling foodies with her approach to cooking baked spuds in April.
Instead of just wrapping your potato in foil and bunging it in the oven for an hour, blogger Tonia Larson of The Gunny Sack, from Minnesota, reveals there’s some lengthy – but crucial – preparation work to do before you put the spud in the oven.
She calls her recipe ‘The Bloomin’ Baked Potato’ after the way she cuts the potato to look like a blooming flower before she puts it the oven.

‘An added bonus was that the new technique allowed you to be creative with presentation’, researchers found (pictured)

According to their results, the new technique produced a potato that scored 6.6 per cent higher than the original spud (pictured)
Cutting it in this way turns the skin crispy while leaving the potato inside creamy and soft, she says.
The whole process takes about one hour and 20 minutes, with one hour and five minutes of cooking time and 15 minutes of preparation.
Elsewhere Food Network chef Tyler Florence revealed that most people are cooking their mashed spuds incorrectly.
The expert cook told Popsugar that the age old method of boiling, draining the water and then mashing is incorrect, as you’re throwing all the flavour away with the cooking liquid.
Instead, he recommends cooking the potatoes in cream and butter and then collecting the resulting liquid to use to mash the potatoes with.