Does Inserting A Nail Into Your Baked Potatoes Help Them Cook Faster?

Are you obsessed with baked potatoes but simply don't have a spare hour to bake them? Even on the grill, baking a potato is a huge time commitment. Admittedly, those beautiful char stripes almost make it worth the wait (food is always better with lines on it), but still — who's got the time? Okay, you could plunk one in the microwave, but then it wouldn't have nice crispy skin. Or lines. What's a baked potato without scrumptious skin?  

Surely, there must be some way to speed up this process. The Spruce Eats recommends using a blend of microwaving and baking to achieve a speedy baked potato without sacrificing yummy skin. Start the potato's cooking process by microwaving it for a mere five or six minutes. Then, apply some olive oil and salt and bake at 400 degrees F for roughly 30 minutes, and ta-da — you'll never be able to tell that it had ever stepped foot in a microwave. She Wears Many Hats contends that by cutting your taters in half down their lengths, liberally sprinkling both sides with olive oil and salt, and baking for 30 to 40 minutes, you will achieve a spud with crispy baked potato skin. 

Other outlets contend that inserting a nail from a potato's top to bottom will also speed up the baking process. Hm. It sounds interesting, but will this trick for baked potatoes actually save you time?

If you consider yourself to be both a talented chef and an expert handyperson, here is your chance to blend both of these skills. Some say that you can significantly decrease your simple baked potato's cooking time by driving a nail through it. It is important to note, however, that the safest option is to stick with a stainless steel food-grade variety that is made specifically for this purpose. 

Does this method actually work? When Cook's Illustrated decided to test this theory, they yielded some unimpressive results. They used three taters, one stabbed by an aluminum nail, one with a stainless steel skewer, and one control potato. They only saved seven minutes by impaling a potato. Interestingly, they also discovered that a potato with five nails pushed through it only cooked 11 minutes more quickly than an ordinary potato. When AmazingRibs.com conducted a test using a stainless steel nail specifically designed for potatoes, they had a similar outcome. Their impaled spud only cooked 10% quicker than the intact specimen. They chalked this up to the fact that potatoes are largely made up of water, which can "counteract the small amount of heat coming through a skinny nail." While a nail doesn't make a big difference in cooking time, All Recipes found that it did create fluffier pulp.    

It turns out that running one's potato through with a nail is not worth the effort, so step away from the toolbox.