A Christmas dinner staple can already be bought now as long as it’s kept in optimum conditions and covered by a specific material.
Potatoes are a crowd-pleasing and important item for the big day.
The root vegetable has an extremely long shelf life when stored correctly, which means those planning to cook this Christmas can get ahead with the food shopping now.
Keeping potatoes at a cool, ideal temperature is crucial to prevent them from turning green, sprouting or getting soft spots.
As well as this, storing them in a dry place such as a paper bag will also improve the longevity of the vegetable.
Amazingly, potatoes continue to breathe even after harvesting, meaning they continue to ‘live’ while on supermarkets shelves and in your home.
Therefore, placing the item in a paper bag within a cool, dark space will hugely decelerate their decomposition, protecting them from spouting early.
A paper bag will also make sure they have airflow. The root vegetable emits carbon dioxide and water in a vapor form, meaning the area they are kept in would become damp if not stored in a bag which allows ventilation.
Despite needing to avoid heat and sunlight, potatoes should not be put in the fridge.
Experts warn against this due to a breakdown of starch into sugar. This will result in a sweeter taste and could become brown when cooked.
Another key Christmas dinner ingredient is onions.
However tempting it may be to toss both vegetables in a bag together, doing so can encourage potatoes to sprout. This is due to the gas they emit which catalyses the ripening process. Storing them in separate paper bags is the best option.
Even after keeping potatoes correctly, there is still a small chance that they could turn bad.
The vegetable will often give visible signs that it is no longer safe to eat.
Mould, black spots and some soft spots are easy signs of them going off. Potatoes that turn wrinkled, soft, or shriveled, while not necessarily harmful, will see a change to their texture and flavour which is often unappetising.