Waxy Potatoes have cells in them that stay together when cooked. This mean that chunks and slices will stay together when boiled or cooked, making them ideal for salads and layered potato dishes such as scalloped potatoes. You can also slice them after boiling without having the slices disintegrate on you.They are 13 to 15% starch.
It’s a myth that all potatoes are “all-purpose.” Though many are flogged that way in North America, many a cook has had chunks of potato for potato salad crumble disappointingly apart precisely because they were misled on this point. Waxy Potatoes would have done the job.
European potato breeders may refer to Wax Potatoes as “Cooking Type A.”
The other type of potatoes is called “Floury Potatoes.”
Cooking Tips
Don’t use waxy potatoes to make mashed potatoes from: if you’ve ever had mash turn out heavy and gluey on you, it’s because the potatoes you used were waxy potatoes. Use Floury Potatoes instead. Don’t use waxy potatoes either for making Baked Potatoes with. Baked, they are less of a disaster, but they don’t turn out as nice and flaky as do Floury Potatoes when baked. Instead, they turn out rather dense, heavy and uninteresting.
Waxy potatoes are, however, good for making roast potatoes from. Their dense texture also allows you to use less flour than you would otherwise in dishes where this matters, such as gnocchi.
