Potato

Take a potato in your hand. Feel the weight of it — a good one feels heavier than it looks, dense, packed with starch. That starch is the whole story. Once heat hits it, those starch granules swell with water and burst, and that's what gives you a fluffy inside and, if you let the surface dry out first, a crust that shatters. No starch, no fluff — simple as that.

Choose potatoes by touch and smell, not by size. Skin should be tight, no give under your thumb. Eyes should be shallow and dry, not sprouting green shoots. A faint earthy smell is good; anything musty, or a potato gone soft and wrinkled, means it's past its best.

Some people say a green patch on the skin is nothing, just sunlight — cut it off and cook it. No! Green means the potato was exposed to light and started producing compounds that don't belong in your food. Cut deep, well past the green, or throw the whole thing out if it runs deep. The mistake people make is trusting a quick trim — and serving a potato that should never have reached the pot.