The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial tuber of
the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, which is one of the most widely used vegetables in Europe and North and South America.
There are thousands of varieties of potato in cultivation.
The potato is unrelated to the sweet potato. In the United States it is sometimes referred to as the "Irish Potato" to distinguish it.
In the 16th century, the Spaniards introduced it to the rest of the world. The name "Potato" came from the Spanish word "patata" (the original quechua word was "papa"). Many other European languages took forms of this Spanish name. In the Americas, the word "papa" is more common in the Spanish language than "patata".
It has long been popularly taught that Sir Walter Raleigh was responsible for bringing the potato to England, but Sir Francis Drake is more likely to be responsible. In 1586, after battling the Spaniards in the Caribbean, Drake stopped at Cartagena in Colombia to collect provisions - including tobacco and potato tubers. Before returning to England he stopped at Roanoke Island, where the first English settlers had been attempting to set up a colony. The pioneers returned to England with Drake, along with the potatoes.
By 1650 potatoes were the staple food of Ireland, and they began to replace wheat as the major crop elsewhere in Europe, being used to feed both people and animals. The first mention of potatoes appearing in North America comes from Irish settlers in Londonderry, New Hampshire during 1719.
Augustin Parmentier is said to have popularised it in France in the 18th century, after his captivity in Prussia.
The potato was such an important food to the Irish that it is permanently associated with them today in the popular imagination, due to a single devastating event—the Irish potato famine. In the 1840s there was a major outbreak of potato blight, which swept through Europe, wiping out the potato crop in many countries. The Irish economy was so dependent on a single variety of potatoes as a staple at this time that the event led to terrible disease, death, famine, and subsequently emigration by many of the survivors to areas where there was more food. The blight marks an important, though tragic, point in Irish history.
Other theories that accept the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contacts, attribute an earlier date of the very limited existence of potato in the Old World and Asia.
Potatoes come in brown, yellow, pink, red, and purple (sometimes called "blue"). Their flesh may be white or colored like the skin. Small types are called "fingerling" or "new" potatoes, larger potatoes are often distinguished as "earlies" or "main crop", with the "main crop" being varietes that will store well. Individual varieties may be labeled "boiling", indicating that they retain some shape when boiled, "baking", indicating that they only hold their shape if baked, "roasting", indicating that they are flavoursome when roasted, "salad" to indicate that they are suitable for salad use (often firm and waxy fleshed when boiled), or "mashing" to indicate that when mashed they form a smooth consistency neither fibrous nor grainy.
Some common North American varieties are:
Burbank Russet - large, brown skin, white-fleshed, developed by Luther Burbank
Yellow Finn - small, with yellow skin and flesh
Red Gold - red skin, yellow flesh
German Butterball - a yellow fingerling
Yukon Gold - yellow skin and flesh
In the United States the term "Idaho potato" is often used, but does not denote a variety, but simply an origin in Idaho, that country's principal potato-growing region.
Some common British varieties are:
Maris Piper - a good general purpose white main crop potato, not suitable for salads though
King Edward - the best roasting potato, often served with the Sunday roast, white main crop
Desiree - a red skinned main crop potato, a favourite with allotment holders because of disease resistance
Jersey Royal - a salad new potato, grown on the island of Jersey and in Spain
Pink Fir - a pink salad new potato which grows in irregular shapes
Golden Wonder - famous Scottish frying potato used to make crisps
Purple Peruvian potatoes
In countries such as Peru, to which potatoes are native, a much wider range of varieties is available.
A benefit of new and fingerling potatoes is that they contain less toxic chemicals. Such potatoes are an excellent source of nutrition. Peeled, long-stored potatoes fried by fast-food establishments have less nutritional value although they still have potassium and vitamin C.
Potatoes can be prepared for eating in numerous ways, either with their skin on or peeled, whole or cut into pieces, and with seasonings or without. All that is required is that they be cooked to break down the starch and make them edible. Potatoes are generally eaten hot, but several basic potato recipes involve cooking the potatoes and then eating them cold - potato salad and potato chips. One of the commonest presentation methods is 'mashed potatoes'. These are peeled, boiled, then mashed and mixed with butter, cream, or other seasonings before serving. Potatoes can also be baked whole; cut into cubes and roasted; grated and formed into dumplings or potato pancakes; and cut into long, thin pieces and fried or baked (Chips, called "French fries" in the US).
The tubers are covered with buds called "eyes". Common varieties of
potatoes do not produce seeds; the flowers are sterile. Instead, they are
propagated by planting pieces of existing tubers, cut to include at least one
eye. Confusingly, these pieces are called "seed potatoes".
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