I will not eat green potatoes and ham.

October 10, 2009 6:27 AM

Garden/Botony/KitchenFilter: If your potatoes turn green, can you safely turn them back to brown?

Some of the potatoes we grew this year were left exposed to the sun in the kitchen. Subsequently the skin has gotten kind of green. More than just a few small spots. This makes them poisonous. I'm wondering if we can root cellar them to turn them back to brown, and would that affect the amount solanine in the potatoes? Can we eat these, eventually, or should they just be thrown away?

posted by Toekneesan to science & nature (5 answers total)

I might well be wrong, but I think the solanine is destroyed on cooking. I don't think you'll be able to turn them back in any reasonable way, especially once they've been harvested.

More at Wikipedia.
posted by Solomon at 6:56 AM on October 10, 2009

I would throw them away. The green color correlates with toxin formation but is not caused by it. Even if you found a way to get rid of the color (I can't think of one) you wouldn't know if you had affected the toxin.
posted by Fiery Jack at 7:02 AM on October 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've just peeled away the green and cooked them as I normally would. Is this crazy? I'm still alive, by the way!
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 7:22 AM on October 10, 2009

Yeah, just peel them. (another grizzled survivor of peeled green potatoes here)
posted by Quietgal at 8:14 AM on October 10, 2009

Another vote for peel and eat.
posted by Bruce H. at 9:25 AM on October 10, 2009