1. Peel the potatoes with a vegetable peeler and remove any dark spots or “eyes” with the tip of the peeler. Some cooks like to peel potatoes under running water, but it’s just as easy to do it over a bowl, letting the peels fall into the bowl for easy disposal.



2. Run the peeled potato down the large-hole side of a box grater. (Potatoes grated on small holes tend to turn mushy when cooked.) You can also use a food processor to grate potatoes, which is quicker than hand grating. But many cooks find that the food processor cleanup alone takes longer than grating by hand.

Tips: Be sure to peel and grate potatoes immediately before cooking, as potato flesh will oxidize (turn brown) when exposed to air for more than a few minutes. If you’d like to peel potatoes ahead of time, you can place the peeled spuds in a bowl of water for up to 6 hours or so to keep them from turning brown. But that’s not a good idea with grated potatoes as too much starch will leach from the potatoes, affecting the quality of the finished dish.