Salt Crusted Baked Potato

Potato, good!
I quote the TV show friends often, particularly Joey and Phoebe. Joey's love for food is part of his charm. When Rachel (who never cooks) made a traditional English trifle and mixed it with a shepards pie recipe on accident, Joey's comment was.... "Well, I like it. I mean, what's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!" Yeah, I've got a million of them that I live by.
Anyways, often we expect food to be less when less is done to it, which is simply not true for many things. Potatoes are such a perfect example. Give me a baked potato for dinner and you can keep the steak. Just give me all the yummy toppings too. Dr Atkins hated me.
I must say, these are the very best baked potatoes I have ever had, they were lighter and fluffier, and I wish I had bought a much bigger potato. They were even really good without adding anything at all and coming from me that is saying a lot. Yes, after I ate the insides I brushed off the salt and spread a little butter on the peel and ate that too.

Salt Crusted Baked Potato

3 ingredients plus an oven, and toppings of course.

Potato

Butter, to rub over potato, and much more for later

Salt, my favorite: Pink Australian Flake Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Wash and scrub potato.
Poke a couple holes in potato with a knife.
Cover potato with soft or melted butter.
Sprinkle salt all over potato.

Place potato in oven directly on middle rack.
Set a pan underneath potato to catch any dripping butter, there will be dripping.
Bake for 1 hour, more if needed.

Add more butter and....
sour cream, lot's of sour cream.

MINE!

Then add fresh cooked crumbled bacon, snipped chives, grated cheese, cracked pepper, whatever you have and love.
Or salsa for Lisa in Jersey, she eats healthy, silly girl.

For a group, I would place the potatoes on a cooling rack over a foil covered baking sheet. Most of what I have read about salt crusted potatoes doesn't say to remove the salt before serving, although I think for guests or on a plate with other food you should, but I like the look of it on the plate by itself and if you open it carefully only a small amount of salt falls into the potato which is fine. For $9.95 you can get one at Terrance Brennan's in New York and they clean it for you with a little brush. Mine was less than a dollar, so there.