Alan Davidson

Potato Varieties

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About
The choice of potato varieties by potato growers varies by country or region, and also changes steadily over time. In Europe, it was in the mid-18th century that a range of varieties, adapted to the longer European growing days, began to be recorded and deliberately marketed as special and different. Before long there were scores of them, then hundreds. About 700 potato varieties are now held in a governmental reference collection in Scotland.

Commercial potatoes are classified as ‘early’ (these provide the small ‘new potatoes’) or ‘maincrop’, according to when they mature and are harvested. Wilson (1993) has provided an excellent survey of British and European varieties of both categories, explaining their origins, uses, and relative importance in commerce and the kitchen. This survey reflects the position in the 1990s, and covers among very many others:

  • early varieties—Arran Pilot, Home Guard, Red Craig’s Royal, and Maris Peer;

  • maincrop—Desiree, Kerr’s Pink, King Edward, Red King, Golden Wonder, Majestic, Maris Piper, Pentland Crown, Pentland Dell, and Redskin.