27 June 2024 , 12:07
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A humble jacket potato seller located in Tamworth, Staffordshire, has become a TikTok sensation - and customers are travelling from all over the world and queuing for hours to get a hold of his spuds.
Known as Spudman, Ben Newman's videos, where he can be seen serving up scrumptious-looking jacket potatoes to hungry fans, have taken the internet by storm. Brits know that a baked spud is far from boring, especially topped with baked beans and cheese - and now it seems the rest of the world is catching on.
But if you don't fancy waiting for hours (in the British rain) to try Spudman's crispy jacket potatoes, and start salivating every time they pop up on your TikTok For You Page, it's your lucky day. The 39-year-old recently took to the platform to share the 'secret' to soft jacket potatoes with a crispy skin - so you can make them at home.
And contrary to popular belief, it's not about cooking them for a specific length of time. Instead, the dad-of-nine says it's all to do with the type of potato he uses. Addressing a comment on his TikTok account, "how do you get the potatoes soft on the inside? How long are they cooked for?," Ben replied: "So you want me to give away my trade secrets? Well, go on then."
Ben, who has 3.5m followers on his @spudarmy account, continued: "First of all, it's not so much about how you cook the potato, it's the variety." In Spudman's jacket potato van, they use a variety of potato called Melody.
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"These are beautiful for baking," he added. "Not every potato is equal. Not every potato should be used for the same thing." When it comes to cooking them, the Spudman van has huge industrial ovens that are a whopping 300C-350C, which is why they "wrap everything in tin foil".
In order to get a crispy skin at home, Ben recommended: "At home, you don't need to. Your oven gets to 200C- 220C, so leaving them out of the foil at home will give you a nice, cripsy skin."
Ben's third tip is to "be patient and wait until they're ready". He continued: "You can tell they're ready by giving them a little squeeze. If you can feel like you could squeeze the entire thing, they're ready. It's got to have that give to it."