Baking on a bed of rock salt?

[Cady]

I'm getting ready to play with a batch of gnocchi - one gnocchi recipe, half dozen cooking techniques and/or sauces - and so did a bit of web searching.

I make my gnocchi with 2 pounds of riced russets, one egg, and as tiny amount of flour - always under a cup - as I can get away with. I'm not planning on changing my recipe, but...

I was noticing that a lot of recipes call for cooking the potatoes on rocksalt, due to heat distribution. Any clue as to why? (Just baked potatoes, riced, seem to work great...I'm not gettin' the rock salt thing.)

[blue room]

This article sure makes me want to at least try it once
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/...
also, for some reason, little potatoes buried in coarse salt just seems/looks cool. It would be fun to unearth them before serving.

[ultrabright]

The salt probably helps draw out the moisture of the potatoes which will lead to fluffier potatoes and better gnocchi

[todao]

How does reduced moisture equal fluffier potato if the potato is processed through a ricer?

[ipsedixit]

It's lighter, airier b/c there's less moisture.

[BabsW]

I'd buy it. Here in central NY, salt potatoes are a big thing. They're boiled, skins-on, in salt water, and they are most definitely fluffier than regular boiled potatoes.

[todao]

According to this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5657593_bake-...
it makes for a fluffier potato.
I don't accept that theory. I would accept the theory that the potato might bake a bit more evenly because it isn't in direct contact with the heated surfaces of the oven/sheet pan, etc. but if you're going to rice them for gnocchi the rock salt technique is unlikely to improve the potato to any degree that would provide a superior foundation ingredient for the gnocchi.

[Cady]

Thanks, Todao. That was sort of my thought, that I figured it was doing *something*, though I couldn't imagine how it would help gnocchi. (lol. My gnocchi finally improved 70 hundred million thousand percent when I started baking and using a ricer rather than boiling and/or using a masher. :)

[blue room]

I've always wondered if you can use the same salt over and over to bake potatoes -- the same salt bed used years, maybe twice a month. Would it still have the same properties after being "cooked" so many times?

[Cady]

According to what I've read, you can use it over and over. (As long as it didn't get wet, I suppose. lol.)