How do I store potatoes?

Potatoes are living tubers and they respond to light, temperature and moisture. Each of the three storage rules exists because breaking it causes a specific, visible problem — greening, sprouting or rotting.

Safety

What you'll need

• Paper or hessian sack
• Cool dark cupboard
• Ventilated vegetable rack (optional)

Step by step

1. Keep potatoes somewhere cool, dark and airy.Ideally 7–10°C. A cupboard away from the oven, a cellar, or an unheated utility room.
2. Never store them in the fridge.Cold converts starch to sugar, changing the flavour and causing darkening when fried or roasted at high heat.
3. Keep them out of plastic bags.Trapped moisture causes rot. A paper or hessian sack lets them breathe.
4. Store them away from onions.Onions release moisture and gases that encourage potatoes to sprout, and potatoes release moisture that rots onions.
5. Check them regularly and remove any that are soft or rotting.One rotting potato spreads quickly through a sack.
6. Remove sprouts as they appear.Sprouting means they are trying to grow. The potato is still usable if firm — just snap the sprouts off.
7. Cut away green patches generously, or discard the potato.Green indicates solanine, which cooking does not destroy. Extensive greening means discard it.
8. Do not wash potatoes before storing.Surface moisture accelerates rot. Wash them when you use them.

Tips

• New potatoes have thinner skins and do not keep as long — use them within a week or so.
• A cardboard box with a few holes punched in it works perfectly well if you have no sack.
• If potatoes taste sweet or caramelise oddly when roasted, they have been stored too cold.

Common mistakes

• Refrigerating potatoes — Cold converts starch to sugar, which changes flavour and causes darkening at high cooking temperatures.
• Storing them in plastic — Trapped moisture causes rot within days.
• Storing potatoes and onions together — Each accelerates the other's deterioration.

Questions people ask