'I didn't know how good baked potatoes could be until I tried this method'

When you're craving a hot, hearty, and satisfying meal, a baked potato is hard to beat. Prepared to perfection with your preferred topping, whether that's simply butter, or you favour it loaded with baked beans, grated cheese, chilli, tuna mayonnaise, or something more elaborate, it's a winner.

They're straightforward to prepare as well - they can be done in the microwave in roughly 10 minutes if you're after a speedy lunch, or you can use the oven, air fryer, or even a barbecue for that wonderful crispy exterior. However, one Reddit user has revealed that they'd realised they'd spent their whole life without having a properly-prepared baked potato, and discovering their mistake had introduced them to a fresh culinary world.

They shared their story with the heading: "I found out recently I've basically never had a correctly prepared baked potato." "So growing up I was never a huge fan of baked potatoes because the ones we had were usually dry, kind of shrivelled, and very crumbly," they explained. "Every bite just felt like it was absorbing all the moisture in your mouth, even with butter.

"As an adult, I usually do rice or pasta for my carbs, and if I do potatoes, it's usually the cut roasted baby ones. Because I didn't have great experiences with baked ones at home, I also pretty much never ordered them at restaurants growing up." Everything changed, however, at a family gathering, when they were tasked with manning the grill and seized the opportunity to discover what a truly great baked potato could taste like, reports the Express.

"I look it up and see basically every recipe says to coat the potatoes in salt and olive oil before wrapping them, which I asked my mom if she did, and she hadn't," they explained. "I decided to try it with a (maybe slightly too) generous amount of olive oil and kosher salt, baked it for an hour, and topped it with some of the garlic/thyme butter I had whipped up for the steaks.

Oh. My. GOD.

"The texture was absolutely amazing, it was so creamy, not crumbly or dry at all, the salt and the compound butter melting into it while it was still steaming made for legitimately one of the tastiest things I've had in ages. If anyone out there doesn't know this, I honestly have no idea how common knowledge this is, but I would highly suggest trying it if you don't already."

Commenters were quick to contribute their own techniques for achieving the ultimate baked potato. One remarked: "Maybe this is heresy, but I microwave mine for 2.5 minutes, flip, another 2.5 minutes, and then coat with olive oil and salt and finish in a convection oven for 10-15 minutes to get the crispy skin.

Really works well for lunch." In response, a fellow user countered: "If by heresy you mean smart.

People have this weird aversion to the microwave, but it's a great tool when used properly." Another person commented: "Don't wrap your potatoes in anything! You are steaming them instead of baking them (from the moisture in the potato).

"Coat them in oil, poke the ends with a fork a few times, season as you wish and bake at a high heat on a rack until fork tender. This will give you fluffier taters and crisper skin.

Enjoy your spuds, bud!". Meanwhile, a separate user remarked: "Everyone's going on about potatoes, but the real lesson here is that if you don't like something popular it could be the preparation.

Not always, but often enough to be worth looking into."