Miscellaneous desk
< November 28	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 30 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 29[edit]

What's the fastest way to cook a potato?[edit]

By this, I mean of any known ways, not made up ones. Tarantula^TM (speak with me) (my legacy) 03:35, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Clean and finely dice the potato. Cook it in a microwave steamer for three minutes. Season and serve. Cullen328 (talk) 03:41, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Pre-processed (finely ground) mashed potatoes say to cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes in the microwave. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:30, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The time taken will also depend on the size of the potato. Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:14, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And the type. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:42, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

TrademarkedTarantula, by "cook", are you referring purely to the heating time, or including that needed for preparation (and perhaps also washing up afterwards)? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.194.245.32 (talk) 12:17, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, I'm asking how long it takes to get from a raw potato to a potato that's heated up. Not sure if this helps. Tarantula^TM (speak with me) (my legacy) 15:12, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm curious what a "made up" cooking method would be. Subjecting it to Superman's heat vision? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:35, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Drop it in the Sun? Insert, using a control rod, into a nuclear reactor? These are made-up cooking techniques, that offer much in the way of speed of cooking a potato. --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 10:02, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In general I think a deep fryer will work quicklier than a microwave, which will be faster than boiling in water, which will be faster than frying in a pan or on a flattop grill, which will be faster than a toaster oven or air fryer, which will be faster than a convection or conventional oven, which will be faster than wrapping the potato thickly in tinfoil and burying it in the embers of your campfire overnight.

The more finely you process it, the quicklier all the bits will be thoroughly cooked. Of course, some of the cooking methods won't work for all preparation styles: you can't pan-fry a whole potato, for example.

If you're just worried about final heating time, you can parboil or parbake the potato earlier in prep. Carrying around a freshly roasted potato on a cold winter day is a great way to keep your hands warm, plus you have a snack. Folly Mox (talk) 12:46, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is closely related to an argument I witnessed between our IT guy and another person. What do you mean by "time"? You can go from a ridiculous "time between planting a potato spud" to "having a fully cooked potato." You can go from "time that the potato is placed in some extremely hot environment" to "time that the potato is warmer than room temperature." I feel that the important time period is the time between "I want a potato" and "I have a potato that I will enjoy eating." Microwaves are fast because there is no warm-up wait. Boiling water or heating up oil takes time. You can work in parallel and heat up water or oil while chopping up a potato. Chopping, dicing, slicing, grinding, or preparing a potato in any way takes time. If you get a box of potato flakes, I feel that someone, somewhere spent time powering and drying the potato flakes. All in all, I know I can pop a potato in my microwave, run it four minutes, and it is heated to my liking. I have a combo unit, so I technically prefer to microwave 3 minutes and bake 3 minutes. I hit microwave-3, bake-3, start, get the butter, pepper, salt, sour cream, etc..., and then I have a good meal. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 14:52, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You can go back farther than that. Reminds me of a comment by Carl Sagan in the Cosmos series: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:35, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Reminds me of [1]. --Ouro (blah blah) 19:42, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Identification of a 1960s musician from somewhere in the U.S.[edit]

I need help looking for a guy who made “Jack Daniels Green”. Who is “Dave Lewis”? If you go to the Jack Daniel's article & click on “Cultural references”, you’ll see it. This is the link. All I know is that he made “Jack Daniels Green” (somewhere between the 1960s & early 1970s). What songs did he release? Description: The record label was some company called “Panorama” & by a company named “BMI” or “Burdette Music Co. The record type was a 45 rpm LP. Duration was 1:54. Also features “Hi-Heel Sneakers”. —The Industrial Me 1563 (talk) 20:49, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

How could you not find Dave Lewis (American musician)? Sorry for the snarkiness.--Wrongfilter (talk) 20:59, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh —The Industrial Me 1563 (talk) 21:54, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Search tip: entering "Jack Daniel's Green" (including the two quote signs) in the "Search Wikipedia" search box also leads one to the page Dave Lewis (American musician). --Lambiam 11:45, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

But what even is Panorama? —The Industrial Me 1563 (talk) 15:08, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No Wikipedia article yet, but see Panorama (I Googled "Panorama record label" and this was the first result). Alansplodge (talk) 15:36, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]