Potatoes: Culinary Classifications and Nomenclature

Potato varieties are classified, named, and marketed according to their geographic location of production and intended use; for example, Idaho “baking potatoes” or eastern “all-purpose” potatoes. Some also carry particular varietal names, such as Russet Burbank—names that denote color or size, as in White Rose or Gold Rose. Breeders or marketers patent-protect designer heirloom varieties, which are distributed through fine-food stores and seed catalogs that market eyes, cuttings, and minitubers for home gardens, such as the small, elongated, dense, golden-fleshed La Ratte that boasts a nutlike flavor. Breeders at state universities sometimes design new and distinctive varieties for particular niches, for example, Michigan State University’s Michigold variety, which is yellow-fleshed, tasty, nutritious, high yielding, and resistant to disease. Such specialty potatoes offer a counterpoint to more insipid potatoes industrially processed for fast food and frozen food markets, which have come to dominate production since the 1940s.