Natalie Tootie

Today I made hash browns. The other day I had this great scramble with hash browns and it made me think about how hash browns are this simple food that I bet most people don’t even know how to make from scratch. I didn’t know how either, of course, so I looked online for some recipes.

It’s easy.

1. Start 3 tablespoons of oil heating on medium high heat.

   If you’re only making enough for one, use a small pan, if you’re making a lot, use a large pan. I used a large pan the first time to be sure I had enough room, but for one small potato, as small pan would have been better and I will use that next time.

2. Grate the potato(es).

   We’ll get to the reason in a moment, but I grated a potato onto 3 paper towels. I have a recently purchase a box grater which I highly recommend.

3. Dry potato(es).

   I folded the three paper towels over so there were now three layers of paper towel on both sides of the grated potatoes and pressed down hard. I did this three times (nine paper towels). Apparently dry potatoes are essential to good hash browns. Of course they’re not going to be literally dry, you just want to squeeze all the excess water off so they won’t be soggy.

4. Turn down heat.

   When your water gets hot enough that a drop of water sputters, turn the heat from medium high to medium low. (For me personally, this was 7 to 3).

5. Cook the hash browns.

   Add the hash browns to the pan, add some salt and pepper, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Then flip them and cook for 8 to 10 more minutes. You may need to cut into smaller pieces to facilitate flipping.

I really enjoyed doing this and the hash browns turned out pretty good. In my case they were not burned at all but they were a bit overly crispy, so I’ll learn from that for next time. But I would highly recommend this exercise if you’re normally not much of a cook. It’s so empowering to realize you can cook things so simply. After this, I’m confused as to why companies even sell frozen hash browns, which you still have to cook!. I guess they are relying on the fact that people think that making hash browns is some mysterious process instead of being really easy.