Potatoes: Varieties and Cooking Qualities
Potatoes are classified into FLOURY and WAXY, with most varieties falling somewhere between these two extremes.
Waxy varieties are best boiled. They cannot be mashed but they can be fried.
Floury varieties can be cooked in any way, including mashing. They fry extremely well. However, boiling is to be avoided unless you stand over them with a knife testing the hardness during cooking, because the tubers disintegrate rapidly in hot water once they are cooked.
There are some varieties which are multi-purpose.
Note that potatoes get more floury if they are left longer in the ground (e.g. mature Jersey Royals) or if stored until after Christmas.
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