(when) do you peel potatoes?

I mostly don't.

When a recipe calls for potatoes to be peeled, I most typically ignore that and everything works out fine. My wife insists on partially peeled potatoes for mashed potatoes so I half-peel each spud in stripes and toss those into the frozen broth bag, and then the bits of peel in the mash are smallish, but I still feel like I get the heartier fare by including the peels.

Anyway, I just saw a recipe for frying potato cubes and it called for peeling and I can't imagine why I'd do that.

So -- do you peel potatoes? And when do you or do you not?

I feel seen by this question haha!

I am a skin-on kind of guy. I however peel because my wife prefers quite a few preparations without it. I have learned to get around this request by making baked potatoes frequently as that is an acceptable preparation skin-on.

Usually when I peel and cut the potato into chunks when I boil them.

I leave the peel on when cutting the potato for French fries.

My MIL boiled whole potatoes for potato salad because then they were easy to peel.

I almost never peel potatoes. I frankly can't see a situation where I would peel them..... maybe if I was making some sort of potato bread or cake or something?
I leave them on even in my mashed potatoes, I like the rustic texture.

My husband grew up in a place where you peel everything, so he still peels the potatoes for mash. I see it like ironing: why make things more complicated if you don't absolutely need to? Also, fiber, vitamins....

Most of the time, no I don't, unless the potatoes are quite old and wrinkly, or I specifically want to make some deep fried potato skin snack (dipped in sour cream & chives or some hot sauce. Yum!).

If the skin is too old and wrinkly, usually by the end of winter, then I peel them and boil the skins.  I give them to the chickens, mixed with some old bread that has soaked in whey.  They love it and by that time of the year. they also deserve a treat!

If canning them, then I also peel them, more threat for me!

I don't peel potatoes. To my mind they're a vegetable with the peel on, and simple starch without it. We grow varieties with thin skin and loads of flavour (the kind that would never stand up to mechanical harvesting).

For mashed potatoes, I leave the skin on and dice them fairly small before boiling. You don't even notice the peel. I think they taste better. I notice that higher end restaurants are doing the same thing now.

I generally prefer not peeling, but I think a case can be made for it if the potatoes are on the verge of turning green. Most of the solanine is in or just under the skin of the potato, so peeling (and maybe cutting away a bit more than the skin) might sometimes turn a horrid-tasting, somewhat toxic, spoiled vegetable into usable starch. Of course, that also removes most of the nutrients, but you would've lost those anyway if you had to throw the whole thing.

Eino Kenttä wrote:I generally prefer not peeling, but I think a case can be made for it if the potatoes are on the verge of turning green.

Of course! I definitely cut out any green or bad spots or patches, along with any eyes or anything else untoward. But I don't throw out a potato unless it's really a horrid situation, there's almost always something to salvage.