Rösti is a national dish of Switzerland, particularly German-speaking Switzerland.
It's a breakfast, it's a side dish, it's just a potato pancake — potatoes, salt, fat,
that's it. But there are so many slight differences in technique people use and right now I'm
doing to try almost all of them. This is rösti, eight slightly different ways.
#1: Parboiled. This method seems to have particular traditional cred in Switzerland. Boil the
potatoes until they've softened a bit but they're still gonna be firm enough that you
can grate them later. I can sink my knife in there but they still resist a fair bit.
I think if I cook them any farther than that they'll just gonna crumble into mash when
I grate them.
A lot of recipes tell you to chill them overnight in the fridge before you grate them, which
is exactly what I did. Now, every traditional recipe I've seen tells you to peel the potatoes
and I don't care. People should eat more potato skin. It's the most nutritious part of the
potato, and if you're using a variety with a thin skin, you probably won't even notice
it in there. There is zero point in peeling these Yukon Gold potatoes I'm using.
Large holes on a box grater. Now, people commonly squeeze out some of the excess water after
they've grated — pretty standard American-style hash brown technique. But when you parboil
the potatoes, there really isn't much to squeeze out. Cooking them dried them out, even though
we used wet heat method.
I'll sprinkle some salt on there and toss. Raw weight on these potatoes was about one
pounds, 454g for a small rösti. That's an 8-inch, 20-cm diameter nonstick. Real small.
For fat I'm using clarified butter but you could use anything. Just be generous with
it if you want a really golden surface on this.
In go the potatoes, I'll push them out into a nice even layer, and then a small one like
this will probably take 10 minutes on side A — medium, medium-low heat. You need the
whole cake to cook to the point where it kinda melts into itself and it's solid enough to
flip.
The danger is usually that you'll overcook the bottom before it's ready to flip, so be
conservative with the heat. I'll flip by just covering it and then turning it out. Not bad.
Maybe a little more fat in the pan, and then slide her back in to brown side B. You can
kinda set that round shape by just swishing it around in the pan. Just cook until the
other side is golden and the whole thing feels reasonably solid. I gave it maybe eight minutes
on that second side.
And I'll turn it out to a cooling rack so it can steam out a bit before I cut it. You'll
get cleaner slices if you really let it cool. I should have cooled this a little bit more.
And there it is, let's taste ... Pretty nice. I like the slightly fluffy texture it has
in the center, from the parboiling. It's just on the verge of becoming mashed potatoes.
Nice.
OK, rösti #2: Not parboiled. Totally raw potatoes. As I grate them they feel much wetter.
And now when I go to squeeze out the water — wow, so much is coming out. I'm not even
squeezing that hard. Big difference from the parboiled potatoes.
I think if you spread them out, it's much easier to eyeball the salt. Even so, that
was probably a little too much salt there. Toss to combine, plenty of clarified butter
in the pan and I'll cook these as before. So far this is a lot easier than the parboiled
method — because I didn't have to parboil them and then wait overnight.
It's starting to feel solid enough to flip, give a peak to the bottom. Uh oh, I think
this is gonna be too dark. Yeah, a little too dark. I think the residue of starchy water
on these pieces browns very easily. I'll be a little more conservative with my heat on
side B. Tidy up the shape, 15-20 minutes of total cook time. Ah, much nicer on that side.
And it feels crispier than he first one, again I think because of the starchy residue. As
Chef John would say, fork don't lie.
Ooo, it's cutting easier too. Very crispy. Hey, I hope everybody who bought one is enjoying
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So, rösti #2, not parboiled, is better on the outside, I think, but I'm not wild about
the inside. It's a little slimy in the center — again, I think from that wet, starchy
residue.
We can try to address that with rösti #3: rinsed, not-parboiled. Again, raw potatoes,
grate them up and then I'll grab a bowl of cool tap water. Hot water might gelatinize
the starch, make it all gummy. Wow, you can see how much free starch is washing off the
surface of the shreds. I'm actually gonna drain that in the sink and then rinse it again
in some fresh water.
Much cleaner now. I didn't invent this, by the way — lots of recipes tell you to wash
off that free starch. Squeeze the water out, sprinkle on some salt, toss. Wow, these feel
so different — almost like coarse hair. Very clean and separate shreds. I'm concerned
that they won't bind together as they cook — that starch glue probably functioned as
a binder in our last one.
Indeed, after about 10 minutes, that's feeling too loose to flip. I'll give it a few more
minutes to kinda melt together, but now, yep, I think I burned it. I guess if you're gonna
wash off the starch you gotta be even more conservative with the heat — give it plenty
of time to cook together before the surface burns.
I'll give it medium-low heat on side B. Ah, much nicer there. Not as crispy though. Again,
I think that starch goo we washed away was a big part of why we got such a nice crispy
surface last time, though this is not bad. Give it a taste. Yeah, I think I prefer the
interior texture on this one. It's not slimy, again, because we washed these shreds. I think
there's a way we can get the best of both worlds.
But first, with rösti #4 I want to try cutting the potatoes into matchsticks rather than
grating them. I've seen fancy chef people do this. They say these longer pieces kinda
wrap around each other and hold the cake together better. I can already tell you I don't have
the knife skills to get these as skinny as they need to be.
Because the pieces are bigger they have less surface area so these are bleeding less water,
which is bad. We need to dry them out a bit and I can't squeeze anything out of them,
so we're gonna need some chemical pressure — I'll salt these and let them sit for like
a half hour. Now the salt is drawn out a fair bit of water and I can squeeze these pretty
dry.
In the pan they go — they really feel like noodles now, it's weird. And I'm turning the
heat down because I can already predict this is going to need some extra time. The pieces
are bigger, it's gonna take longer for them to all cook into each other and get this solid
enough to flip.
And I still burned it. Nice. I'll do better job on side B. Yeah, this is not working.
It's like a pile of worms, not a cake. If you've got ninja knife skills or if you have
a mandolin slicer, maybe you can do this with super-fine matchsticks, but nah, I'm going
back to the grater.
Rösti #5: grated, rinsed and baked. I am gonna rinse these in some clean water but
I'm not gonna rinse them as thoroughly as I did before. There's really no point. A quick
dip gets most of that free starch off, and I'm not sure I want to get it all off anyway.
Squeeze it dry, season, in the pan, and this time I'm just gonna worry about browning the
bottom. That's all. After five minutes the bottom looks good and I'll transfer this to
the oven — 350ºF/180ºC, maybe 10 minutes.
This gives us plenty of time to cook down the potatoes, make them hold together even
without that free starch glue we washed away, and in the oven there's much less risk of
burning the bottom. Bottom looks perfect. A little more butter in to brown the flip
side — again, I'll just worry about browning the bottom. The interior is basically cooked.
I could call this done, but for some extra textural contrast I'll throw that whole rack
back in the oven to crisp the outside and push inside a little closer to mashed-potato
territory. My convection fan is on, by the way.
Let's give that a shot — probably my favorite one so far. Pretty crispy on the outside and
not at all slimy on the inside. Good.
Rösti #6: rinsed, greased and baked
This is gonna be the same as the last one, except after I get my shreds rinsed and dried
I will toss them with a little bit of my clarified butter along with the salt. Lots of recipes
tell you to spread some fat through the pieces. No doubt this will help the cake hold together
and to cook faster.
I will put a little less fat in the pan to compensate. Don't want this too greasy. Brown
the first side, transfer to the oven until it feels solid enough to flip, brown the other
side, optionally return it to the oven on the rack for extra crisping, and I don't think
like that very much. The fat on the inside just makes the whole thing super greasy. Not
a fan.
One more variable I want to test. Rösti #7: mealy potatoes, or baking potatoes. These
are Russets. And these I will peel. They have thick, cardboardy skins. The skins crisp up
great, but the wet bits of skin in the interior would be kinda gross.
Up to this point I've been using Yukon Golds which are an amazing variety that we have
here in the United States - it's halfway between a waxy potato and a mealy potato. Waxy potatoes
hold their shape when cooked, mealy potatoes don't, and I want to try mealy potatoes.
Rinse, squeeze, season, brown, bake, flip, brown, bake again and if you were to use these
more floury potatoes I think you'd want to cook them a little bit less. The interior
is straight mashed potatoes. They've totally fallen apart inside. There was no point in
grating these. I could have just fried some mashed potato cakes, which is a thing that
I do sometimes.
Ok, I think I'm ready for my final draft, Rösti #8. I'm gonna do a much bigger one
now — three pounds of potatoes, 1.4 kilos. I'm using a mixture of Russets and Yukon Golds
because that's all I have left.
Rinse, squeeze, season, and this time I'll use my 10-inch, 25-cm cast iron skillet. Plenty
of clarified butter in there — cast iron is not as non-stick as teflon is. Get all
that in there, cook until things are looking golden on the bottom. Transfer to the oven,
probably for 20 minutes this time — there's just a lot more mass in there.
Feels plenty solid enough to flip. I'll shake this really hard to make sure it's gonna release
when I flip — cast iron is not as non-stick as teflon. Wow, really nice color on that.
Slide her back in, brown the bottom — another good five minutes at least. Turn her out,
and again that's probably good enough, but I will put the rack back in the oven for a
final crisping. The oven is already hot, so might as well.
Turn it out, let it cool. The thicker the rösti, the harder it is to get really clean
slices. The crispy crust kinda caves in on the soft interior. If you want really clean
slices, do a thin one. Again, people eat these with eggs, or as a starch accompaniment to
a stew. I'm just gonna garnish with sour cream and dill and call it a day.
People have asked me if I might show my whole recipe development process, and there, I just
did. But honestly, ever version I tried just now was pretty good and the difference between
them were not enormous. So, you know, cook your potatoes however you want. It'll probably
be fine.