How To Bake A Potato

I do the same thing with a rack. It also helps to catch any "drips" from the butter/oil and seasonings.

A few more things:
* Some people prefer to foil-wrap a potato to give it a softer skin. I prefer more crunch, so I don't.
* Refrigerate any uneaten cooked potatoes fairly soon. **Remove the foil** (if used), and store
in an airtight plastic bag or container. They should be fine for at least three days and reheat well.
* I prefer to reheat mine as a "twice-baked" potato or variation thereof.

Someone here recently mentioned baked jalapeno poppers, so I'm going to try a variation on that. A large jalapeno (cut in half) will nestle nicely inside the skin of a smaller potato. I'll deseed, roast, and peel the pepper first and perhaps fill it with smooshed potato guts, some cheeses, and ???

Pleased with the initial results, I scrounged four potatoes out of a bag headed for the recycle bin. {They weren't "bad" yet, but I expected them to be by the time I was in the mood for potatoes.}

I made a few tweaks to Stage Two which I recommend:
1) I was very generous with the butter/EVOO, brushing on as much as possible (which still isn't very much).
2) I switched from Kosher salt to plain table salt since it "sticks" better.
3) I seasoned both sides, rotated the potatoes halfway through, then rebuttered/reseasoned the top half, noting that much of the butter and seasoning had dripped off into the pan. {BTW, the pan was lined with foil.}
4) A few minutes of broiling both sides at the end added some extra crunchiness to the skins.

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I'm going to use a similar method with a sweet potato (which I have never liked, but I'll give it one more shot). However, I'm going to spiralize it first and make a "tornado". I have a Spiralizer, but it's easy enough to do with a skewer and a sharp knife. I'll season half with Onion Soup Mix (works surprisingly well), the other half with taco seasoning.