I've been going through a winter home-baked potato phase lately, and was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get a really crispy skin, so I tried a bit of experimentation.

This is what I came up with.

1) Heat up your oven to 180 degrees in advance

2) Smear your raw tattie with a little olive oil, and prick all over with a fork.

3) Slow-cook your tattie in the 180 degrees oven until it is soft in the middle (times vary, check by poking with a sharp object - turn it over a couple of times)

4) Push the oven temperature up to 220 degrees for about 10-15 minutes to finish with, that last burst of heat is what produces the crispy skin.

You could of course, scoop out the potato and put the skins back in the oven while you mash the potato and add your filling of choice.

I usually just put the oven on high, then put the potato in the microwave for 10 minutes to cook in the middle, then put in the oven to do the skin. How long you leave it in the oven decides how crispy the skin will be

Gosh all seems very complicated OP, I just prick the potato so it doesn't explode while cooking and put in the oven gas 5-6 for a couple of hours and they come out fine.

Usually cook them when I am doing something else so oven is well filled.

Push metal skewers into the potatoes, through the middle, lengthways so that the middle of the potato cooks. Bake on the metal rack of the oven for 45 minutes or until crispy on the outside. I've always done it this way and they've always come out perfect.

Prick the skin, rub with olive oil and rub some sea salt into the skin. It'll be VERY crispy, though, so beware. Depends how you like them.

Cook them in the microwave first if you want to save time, but otherwise not necessary. To get the skins really crisp, cover in oil then sprinkle salt over them. The oil makes the salt stick and the salt bdries out the skins. Just cook as mormal until they are cooked and the skins will be crisp. Use suitable potatoes as well, with decent thick skins.

yeah the problem is not everyone can spend 2 hours cooking a potato, or set their oven temperature entirely for the benefit of the potato.

generally i would microwave a potato until it's soft, wipe on a little oil, and put it into a hot oven till it's crispy.

Obviously there's lots of ways to bake a potato, but the problem I've had over the last few weeks was getting the perfect crispy skin...of course it might just have been that the varieties of spud we're getting at the moment aren't well adapted to crispiness.

Well as I said I do cook other things along side the potatoes so the oven is not on just forf the potato.

It's worth the wait for a really good potato, no need to put oil on them if you cook them traditionally.

I normally rub with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. 1 hour 15 mins at 180 and they're always lovely and crispy.

Agree with this, cook them as long as I dare, probably 1hr 30m+.

I used to have a Panasonic combination microwave years ago - it cooked the most perfectly, crisped baked potatoes - years later when it died, I bought their 'new' version - it was never as good - not even with the choice of cooking methods. Even now I have the latest Electrolux & I still pine for my original Panasonic.