Not familiar with a convection oven, but if I'm baking potatoes, it takes at least 45 min and closer to an hour at 400F.

How long are you baking them?

I suspect A) the foil (I'm probably wrong, but even if the foil isn't slowing down your potato-baking, it's not doing you any favors) and B) the potato type.

You want a high-starch potato like a Russet, which will bake up into a light fluffable cloud. A low-starch potato will cook through but still feel waxy or chunky when you break it open.

Here's a transcript of Alton Brown's Good Eats episode on potatoes. Section 4 describes how to bake a potato.

I don't have a convection oven, so I don't know how much faster it cooks things. A potato in my conventional oven does take up to an hour, depending on its size.

Oh, and: you want to prick it all over with a fork or with skewers, to let some moisture out as it bakes.

Time. It takes time.

Here's what Alton says to do (probably pretty similar to what he says in the Good Eats transcript, I didn't check).

How long do you cook them for? I don't wrap in foil, just rinse in water, prick in several places and rub some salt into the skin and leave them in a normal oven for As Long As Possible. At least an hour and a half usually results in loveliness. Failure to prick can result in minor explosions.

Yeah, it seconds the time. I don't do anything to them other than clean them and poke with a fork. Pop them directly on an oven rack, turn up to 450ish, and walk away. I check them at 60 minutes by driving a paring knife through the skin - it's a good way to judge skin crispness as well as weather the inside of the potato has become soft enough. If not, another 20 minutes or so and check again. It really takes ages, which is one reason I rarely make them.

My grandmother used to have these things we nicknamed "potato nails" - they were steel pokers that you forced through the potato lengthwise before baking. The theory was that they conducted heat to the inside of the potato for a faster bake. Maybe they did; I'm not sure. I don't have them any more.

Can you start them in the microwave and finish them in the oven? Wouldn't that cut down on baking time?

The only way I can do them is to give them a good wash under the kitchen sink, stab them a few times, wrap them in saran wrap, and microwave for 5-7 minutes.

I've never been able to get them to work in an oven, or in a pot.

I do the olive oil and salt at 350-400 for about 60-90 minutes. I think it was Mitch Hedberg who said that sometimes he cooked a baked potato when he wasn't even hungry because by the time it's done...who knows?

Probably very uncool, but I just microwave 'em.

I think I've done an hour at 450, regular baking. I figured the blowing air wouldn't do much for the process.

I've used Russet potatoes, and thinking about it, I did have good success with little golden finger potatoes, but I wasn't expecting a fluffly cloud out of those, so I didn't think anything of it.

Now, that potato nails thing makes me wonder if spearing it lengthwise with the rotisserie spike might not work.

Ok, I checked out both links and I'm going to try 350 for an hour. I coated two potatoes with salt and oil, and poked the hell out of them with a fork. One's sitting quietly on the rack, the other has been impaled with the rotisserie stick.

See you in about an hour!

On preview: My microwave is a leftover from my college days, and is only big enough to heat water and kind of warm up bowls of leftovers. Might not hurt to try sometime, though.

Good luck!

I've recently discovered baked sweet potatoes. They seem to go quicker, and sort of ooze sugar out of the pokes as they cook.

Good orange nutrition. I never liked sweet potatoes, but now I find that I don't like them sweetened up, which is how they were presented to me. I eat them with sour cream and salt and pepper, or honey mustardy stuff.

A LOT of it has to do with starting with a good baking potato. Not all potatoes bake well Yukon golds, for instance - not good bakers. None of the waxy potatoes bake well. You want a fluffy, mealy potato for baking. Russets are really the best bakers.

I've never liked microwaved potatoes - they're really steamed, not baked. But I do remember my mom giving them a 'head start' in the microwave, which seemed to do no harm.

Sweet potatoes also make fantastic oven fries, especially tossed with a cumin-chili spice coating.

Speaking of flavors, what do y'all like on your baked potatoes? Last night's mix on ours was really good (broccoli, bacon, cheddar, chives). Today I had a spare for lunch, same but with blue cheese instead of cheddar. Also good. What else makes a good baked potato topping? I'm thinking of ways to make "meal" potatoes, not just having them as a side, in which case I'm more of a butter + salt only purist.

There is an AskMe on this! Hold on, I will find it.

I lied, it's not strictly about baked potatoes.

I like salsa and sour cream and cheddar on baked potatoes.

Ok, here's the results:

Part of the thing is my oven may be off in its temperatures. I had a thermometer in there, and even with the oven set at 500F, the thermometer never registered more than 250F. I started at 350 for about 40 minutes, then moved it to 500 and let it go another 40.

These were about seven inches long and 2.5 inches across, so I put 12 fork stabs into each one.

The one on the spike was delicious. I had to work to break it apart, but I think that's because it was so much longer than the usual rounded baked potato.

I had it with butter and extra sharp cheddar. I like real bacon bits but I don't have any. I can do chives only if I've taken an antihistamine, I've recently become allergic to onions. :(

The bleu cheese sounds interesting, as does the brocoli. There's a potato shop at work, and I'll occasionally get one with chicken or steak chunks on it. Definitely a meal.

I'll try the other baked one tonight, but I think it will be ok, as it feels soggy all over, with a crisp skin.

Thanks, everyone!

Strangely, I like them with peanut butter and jelly. Seriously. Try it.

I like them with chili on them.

Aargh, the second potato was hard inside. I've gotten a second oven thermometer to see what's up with the oven.

Wait, did the second potato sit overnight in the fridge (or elsewhere)? If so, that's why it's hard: I'm not sure of the exact science of it, but the starches solidify as they cool and leave it nice and firm --- great for making home fries, but not ideal for a jacket potato.

If not, well, yeah, you've got something else goin' on there.

mmmm I am baking potatoes right now. We are having them with some chicken baked in some random Pervian sauce that we demand our friend brings back when she goes home, and asparagus. Nom.

It did sit in the fridge, but I thought reheating in the microwave would work?

Well, yes and no. It's perfectly fine to eat and I do that all the time, especially when I want to make baked stuffed potatoes with lots of veggies and seasoning added in.

But it will never be fluffy again the way a freshly baked high-starch potato is; the texture by which I mean, the actual structure) changes and as far as I know can't be changed back. The cooked potato, once cooled, will set up into a harder chunkier texture.

I don't know the actual conversions/changes going on there and don't have time to research them (though I suspect the info would be pretty easy to track down), but I'd guess that it's something to do with hot starches gelatinizing or otherwise setting.

Pervian? Heh. Peruvian.