I want to like potatoes... any suggestions?

Honestly, there are probably nearly as many different ways to prepare potatoes as there are ways to prepare eggs. You can use potatoes to make bread for crying out loud.

Potatoes by themselves are relatively mild in flavor, which leads some people to think they're bland. This isn't really the case though; potato chips and french fries both have a strong potato-y flavor that most people really enjoy. So the trick is to find some ways in the kitchen to bring out that potato flavor rather than covering it up with other, different flavors.

As you can probably guess from the whole potato chip/french fry thing, salt is a big factor. Everything we eat benefits from the addition of some amount of salt in order to make it taste more like itself — it's a physiological thing; your sense of taste works better when there are free ions in your mouth — but potatoes in particular need a good amount of salt to bring out their inherent potato flavor. So lesson #1 is don't underseason your potatoes. However you choose to cook them, season them adequately. If your preparation involves boiling them, season the water with one tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt per quart. (Use half a tablespoon if using table salt; if using Morton's salt, the ratio is 1.7:1 by volume to table salt and do the math yourself.)

Potatoes also love to be salted on the plate, after cooking. There are few potato preparations that don't benefit from a little Maldon sea salt on the plate. Maldon salt in particular has a very irregular, flaky texture that makes it crunchy and delicious, like little salt bombs that explode between your back teeth filling your whole mouth with a burst of extra flavor. Don't overdo the finishing salt, though; restraint is the watchword here.

My personal favorite way to prepare potatoes is to cut them into chunks about 2ʺ on a side and boil them in seasoned water until just tender, then drain them and toss them in a little liquid animal fat, about 1 tbsp. per pound of potatoes. Filtered bacon fat — that is, leftover bacon fat that's been passed through a coffee filter — works okay; chicken fat is better; duck fat is the best by far. Toss the potatoes gently to coat with the fat and then spread them out in a single layer on a sheet pan. Season with salt and pepper and pop them into a 500° oven until they're crispy and dark brown on the edges. You'll think you're overcooking them, but potatoes are tougher than you think. When they come out they'll be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside and they'll stay that way throughout the meal, rather than turning soggy before dessert.

But really, just experiment. Google recipes; Cook's Illustrated in particular is a great resource for simple, refined recipes. Try cooking potatoes in a variety of different ways. Each time you make a potato dish, realize that people like it, and that if you don't think it tastes good, you probably didn't get it quite right.

/r/Cooking Thread