Last Updated on January 29, 2021
I am often asked, “what is the best way to store potatoes?” “Should I store them at room temperature, refrigerate them, put them in an open bowl, or a tight plastic bag?”
Potatoes keep best when placed in a well-ventilated container and stored in a dry location, away from sunlight, and at temperatures between 45 and 55 degrees F. That isn’t too easy to find in most homes today but if you place them in a paper bag, cardboard box, or bowl (not in a plastic bag) and keep them in the coolest part of the kitchen or a dry part of your basement, it should help their longevity. If you are shopping for a small family, buy only enough potatoes for a week at a time. Refrigerator temperature is a bit too cool for potatoes and tends to increase their sweetness making them brown very quickly when fried.
You can find a lot more information on all aspects of handling potatoes at potatogoodness.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select a category. In addition to nutrition information and recipes meant for home cooks, the categories intended for professional cooks and markets are pretty interesting too.
Thanks for the potato storage answer. They’re just my husband and my-self and end up with two or so wasted with spoilage. S.A.
I have my potatoes delivered fresh from a farm and was told the best place to store them is in a cool dark place , a fridge is both cool and dark so making the fridge an ideal place to store them. I’ve been doing so for a while and never had a problem with them.
Dawn,
if it works for you, I am not going to argue.
can I freeze potatoes
I have stored potatoes as mashed. Placed an amount for a meal in a zip lock freezer storage bag. Have kept for six months or longer this way.
Can I freeze the raw potato?
No, raw potatoes do not freeze well.
How do you reheat?
It depends on how you have cooked the potatoes. Let me know what kind you want to reheat.
My friend will take mashed potatoes after they’ve been whipped and cream done and beautiful and she will put left-overs in a freezer bag and freeze them and they do really well reheating them for an extra meal
Potatos are actually better for you if you eat them cooked and cooled. When chilled the SUGARS released in the cooking process will be converted BACK into fiber, called resistant starch. It is so resistant that they can’t be broken down by the digestive enzymes. Better yet they travel down to the good bacteria in the colon. What we all could use more of.
This is so cool! I looked it up after I read your comment, and I ended up spending an hour reading about the chemical process behind this. It’s fascinating!
My potatoes also go bad so quickly. I keep them in a paper bag. Perhaps I should change the location to a dark space.
Yes, a cool dark location and only buy as many potatoes as you think you will need for say, a week.
The only place it’s close to 45-52 degrees F is fridge. Even with air conditioner on in the summer, room is 70 degrees. Now what?
Thank you 😉
Do you have a cellar?
Should you wrap garden potatoes in newspaper when storing
Not a bad idea as it keeps the light and heat out somewhat.
We need a potato cooler.
nice idea!
Good luck finding anyplace in south Georgia that is 55 degrees except in January and February.
You would have to dig a root cellar pretty deep, then you would hit water to get to 55 deg.
Refrigerator is only option.
You can freeze whole potatoes by blanching them.
Read more here.
https://www.wikihow.com/Freeze-Potatoes
I store mine in my wine refrigerator! Temp between 49 and 54 degrees.
Thanks for sharing- is it applicable to sweet potatoes?
Hellen,
Yes. Also, I have found that when sweet potatoes get stored in the fridge they take forever to cook.
My grocery stores only have plastic bags, so where to get paper bags for potato storage? Buy them in bulk from Amazon! LOL
hmmm, that is a problem (and plastic is terrible for the environment) – just keep them in a cool dark place if you can’t find paper bags.
Get a paper bag or two when you go to a fast-food restaurant
Always keep potatoes dry. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make when storing their potatoes, and how too many people wind up with mushy taters unfit for use. Your refrigerator has moisture inside it, and even if the potatoes are in a bag, that that dampness can seep through and lead to soggy potato storage disasters.
I store my potatoes in my shed in hessian sacks. But we had a really hard frost for about 3days in a row and now they have gone damp on top of the bag. Will they be ok ?
No, I would get rid of the ones that have gone damp. They might rot.
I have a wooden box that is supposedly meant for potatoes and it would definitely be dark in there but the question is would they keep in there?
Sure, as long as there was ventilation.
I actually kept my potatoes for a long period of time. I just make sure it’s away from sunlight, covered in a well ventilated box, turning and checking them from time to time to see if there are moisture build up underneath the potatoes or container.
I’m currently trying to find new homes for my root veggies as I’ve just been stuffing them in a ventilated cardboard box on my countertop. Not the most attractive, but practical (I guess). I’ve seen some stylish ceramic jars with ventilation holes on the bottom. Are those effective in keeping potatoes and onions fresh? There are claims that the ceramic material provides a dark and cool environment, and the holes promote airflow. The jars look super cute on the countertop, but not sure how efficient they actually are at increasing their shelf life vs the ol’ paper bag/cardboard box method.
Those ceramic jars sound like the perfect attractive solution.
No matter how one stores spuds in a dark room or wrapped with paper, it’s difficult to get the 95% humidity they like. I have great success with peat moss and the 10°C or 50°F garage.
* Take a 5-G paint pail
* line it with a dark garbage bag
* put some peat in the bottom,
* place in a circular row of spuds
* ensure none touch each other in case one rots prematurely
* more peat and a gentle shake
* more spuds…peat all the way to the top + shakin’…gently
* cover with peat
* take a 3″ tube, cardboard, plastic or even 3 toilet roll formers
* tie the loose end of the plastic garb bag around the tube[s]
* the peat acts as a regulator for moisture through the tube
I’ve successfully kept spuds into June, depending upon variety here in The Annapolis Valley of NS
How long would potatoes last being stored in a garden shed March April in Scotland?
Tom,
This is sort of out of my point of reference. It depends on the temperature and humidity. I don’t think I can give you an informed answer. Sorry!
Are you in Scotland? I have some Scottish roots – with the Munroe clan. I have been there several times – love it.
Just wondering, if plastic bags and light are so bad for potatoes, why is that how all grocery stores keep them? Is it just that they sell so fast, long term storage is not an issue?
Personally, I have had MANY potatoes rot or sprout in my dark pantry over the years despite being in a ventilated basket, but I have NEVER see that happen in a grocery store. Just sayin. Any theories?
Thanks.
Kathy,
First of all sorry for the delay. It has been a rough time here in New York during the coronavirus and I am a one man band answering questions and sometimes questions get lost in the shuffle.
My quick guess about plastic is that the potatoes do not sit very long on the shelf in a supermarket whereas, when they get home, you might store them for months. I agree that they can rot even in a dark pantry. I think the key is to not buy so many spuds at one time.
I keep my potatoes loose in a cardboard boot box which happens to have a hinged lid. I line the base with newspaper. I pierced holes in the lid and sides. I leave it on the porch floor out of sunlight. They keep at least a week. If I’ve left-overs I mash them and put them in a thin sandwich bag, from which I expel all the air and then put it in a strong freezer bag and they keep perfect for 3/4 months. No need to store any longer. In my experience chunks of potato in stew do not freeze well so I never add potatoes to a stew which I plan to freeze.
Can I put the potatoes under the sink in a cabinet? That seems like a good place to put it but I’m just making sure.
What worries me about that is that it might be moist under the sink – that is a not a good thing for potatoes.
I’ve always stored my potatoes n onions near each other in stackable veggie bins… Is that all wrong?
As long as they are not in the same bin, I think that is fine.
Potatoes are not easy to store because they are easy to germinate if the air is high in humidity.
“Peace of mind and a comfortable income are predicted by a dream of eating potatoes in any form