The Russet potato is a large potato with skin of dark brown and few eyes, flesh very white and dry, mealy, ideal for baking, mashing, and french fries, common and popular.
To improve the Irish potato, Luther Burbank bred the Idaho, and was awarded a patent posthumously. The Idaho name is after the U.S. state, a leading growing region. In Canada, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Manitoba produce potatoes (2013). However, China became the primary world supplier and consumer (2013), and statistics depend on spread of diseases. The Great Famine (Ireland) 1845-52 is an historically important example of plant disease affecting world food production and hunger.
Varieties with high levels of starch are most suited to baking and mashing. UK generally uses Maris Piper variety. Herr's Russet Kettle Chips use chilled Russet potatoes.
Famous quotes containing the words russet, burbank and/or potato:
“We saw by the flitting clouds, by the first russet tinge on the hills, by the rushing river, the cottages on shore, and the shore itself, so coolly fresh and shining with dew, and later in the day, by the hue of the grape-vine, the goldfinch on the willow, the flickers flying in flocks, and when we passed near enough to the shore, as we fancied, by the faces of men, that the fall had commenced.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I’d been in Burbank for three days, trying to suffuse a really dull-looking rocker with charisma.... It is possible to photograph what isn’t there; it’s damned hard to do, and consequently a very marketable talent.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)