We bring that aggressive approach to this dish of Salt and Vinegar Smashed Potatoes, which reimagines the chip as a sheet pan full of crisp and creamy fingerlings. We treat these potatoes to a quadruple dose of vinegar—starting with the cooking water and ending with a tangy dipping sauce.
The best vinegar is also the cheapest
After trying this recipe with multiple vinegars, including apple cider, malt, white, and combinations thereof, our recipe developers determined the best vinegar for the job was the cheapest: white vinegar. White vinegar sometimes gets derided as cheap and flat, but real acid appreciators love it for its straightforward flavor. It doesn’t have any fruity or malty notes, just pure, puckery sourness. Essentially dilute acetic acid, it adds a bite other vinegars can’t approach. (Fun nerd fact: As we learned in this interview with Dr. Arielle Johnson, acetic acid is one of the few molecules that’s both a taste molecule and a smell molecule.)
What kind of potato should you use?
This recipe works with any small potato in the 1- to 1 1/2-inch range, but our recipe developer Hisham noted that fingerlings are “the superior potato,” with a bit more “meatiness” to them. The small, knobby potatoes have a thin skin that crisps well and a waxy interior (with a relatively low starch content) that turns creamy when roasted.
Quadruple your vinegar for the best flavor
This is not the time for subtlety. To add a quadruple punch of tangy flavors, the potatoes are boiled in acidulated water (thanks to a glug of white vinegar), tossed with vinegar before roasting, hit with a splash when they’re hot from the oven, and served with a drizzle of vinegar-spiked mayonnaise.
The vinegar in the cooking water not only flavors the spuds, it lowers pH, which helps the potatoes keep their shape: Potatoes get their structure from hemicellulose, a carbohydrate present in almost all terrestrial plant cell walls. It breaks down fairly easily in hot water, but hemicellulose is not very soluble in an acidic environment. Add a little acid, and it will keep its shape much longer than it would in plain, neutral water.
Tossing the potatoes with vinegar adds another layer of flavor—one that gets concentrated as it cooks in the oven (acetic acid has a higher boiling point than water). Once cooked, we impart a final layer of fresh, vibrant acidity directly to the hot potatoes, sprinkling them with a couple more tablespoons of white vinegar—ensuring each one gets a splash—before tossing and plating.
To finish, we make a very quick, very tangy sauce with mayo and another healthy dose of white vinegar (and a little pepper). The mayo acts as a perfect, creamy carrier, letting the vinegar shine. Drizzle some on just before serving the potatoes, sprinkle on some chives for a hit of freshness, and serve immediately with the extra sauce on the side.
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