Potatoes seem to have a mind of their own – they sprout into something resembling a shuffling cordyceps undead in a flash. But one food storage trick ensures they last longer
It’s one of life’s minor irritations – you’ve finally summoned the energy to cook a proper meal after a long day, rather than just ordering a takeaway, but when you open the cupboards everything’s… gone a bit pear-shaped.
Potatoes, in particular, seem to despise being fresh and ready to eat. Neglect them for just a few days, and you could find yourself with a bag full of alien-like tuber horrors sprouting into something that resembles a shuffling cordyceps undead from The Last of Us.
Especially in hot summer weather like the conditions we’re currently experiencing this August, it can feel like food spoils almost instantly in the warm confines of a British kitchen. Reporter Alex Evans has dug into a potato-preserving hack foodies swear by. It’s said to work particularly well in the summer months. It comes after UK households issued warning if they have Nescafé coffee in kitchen.
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Since I spend my day writing about food storage hacks (it’s a living), I decided to put a quite popular potato storage hack to the test – storing your potatoes with apples, writes Alex.
According to food storage experts (yes, they exist), keeping potatoes in the fridge with apples will prevent them from going off for ‘three times longer’ than if they’re stored without apples in a cupboard, reports the Express.
The science behind it is apparently due to ethylene gas produced by the apples in the fridge. This chemical is released by the fruit as part of its typical ripening process, which is slowed by the colder temperature, in turn keeping the potatoes fresh for longer, too, say the boffins.
This same chemical can be used to delay the sprouting of potatoes because it inhibits the metabolism of enzymes in the starch of the spud.
I dutifully purchased two standard 1KG bags of spuds from Asda, along with a pack of Golden Delicious apples. One bag had an apple popped in it and was then tucked away in the crisper drawer of the fridge. The other was stashed in a dark cupboard in one corner of the kitchen, sans apple.
I kept putting off writing this article for weeks on end, simply because the trick was working too well. Every few days, I’d check, and everything looked the same for the fridge potatoes, while the cupboard ones also seemed fine, until suddenly, they weren’t.
So, does storing your spuds with apples really make them last longer? Two weeks later: the cupboard potatoes without apples are completely inedible, covered in sprouts and rotting. I’ve been known to chop off the odd growth and carry on, but these are beyond salvageable.
They’re grotesquely sprouting into some alien lifeform. The fridge potatoes look as good as the day I bought them; they’re flawless, pristine, and still fully edible.
In fact, the apple has sacrificed itself to protect its earthy mates because it’s shrivelled and starting to rot. But the potatoes are perfectly edible—in fact, with the added chill of the fridge, I’m not sure they’re ever going to spoil; it almost works too well. So yes: apples really DO save your spuds – and your fridge even more so.
Note: No food will be wasted for science. The rotten potatoes will be chopped up for compost, and the poorly apples will be sliced up for the birds.
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