'Dirty', soil-covered potatoes might be more work but they keep well and have a better flavour.
Weight for weight, potatoes contain more vitamin C than apples.
A roast dinner is not complete without roast potatoes, and where would our national cuisine be without bubble and squeak, jacket potatoes, pie and mash, fish and chips, without potato topping for shepherd's pie, cottage pie, fish pie? Potatoes, even more than their cousins tomatoes, are such a part of daily life that it is disconcerting to remember that they are foreigners, relative newcomers to our tables, hardly more British than Coca Cola or Heinz tomato ketchup.
If the potatoes arrive in a plastic bag, then take them out as soon as you get home. Store them in a cool dark place. Cut off any green parts before cooking: these are mildly toxic, but the rest of the potato is still edible. If you prefer to peel the potatoes, then do so as thinly as possible, since most of the nutrients are concentrated just below the skin.
All purpose King Edwards make the best chips
