I've heard that cooking "breaks down" carbohydrates such as starch. I also know that starch is a complex carbohydrate, which is essentially made out of simple carbohydrates (sugars).
Potatoes contain a lot of starch, so I was wondering: is there a way of cooking potatoes that will break the starch down and make them sweet?
Of course, I'm not expecting to be able to make them sweet like candy, but I'm wondering if I can get some amount of sweetness out of them.
I'm just asking out of curiosity; I don't have any particular goals or dishes in mind.
Best Answer
What you intended won't work. I have also heard generic statements that cooking in principle breaks down complex carbohydrates to simple ones, but this doesn't mean that all complex carbohydrates will break down, nor that any cooking method will do it. And when we come to your specific example, it is a no: starch doesn't break down into sugars at potato-cooking temperatures. Even if you were to heat starch more, it doesn't become especially sweet - you can observe it when making dark roux.
There are other ways to break the starch down, and the other answers point out the main ones, cold temperature and enzymes. But not cooking.