HOW TO BAKE POTATOES
Baking potatoes is pretty straightforward, but you need the right sort of potato for it. Usually the big, russet potatoes are good for this purpose, but you can also try some other sorts. The more water and the less starch the potato has, the more moist and creamy it will be when baked. The high starch potatoes will be more dry and mealy, which is often the desired result. The reason for these differences in the resulting texture is simply because the potato is not cooked in any other liquid but its own, and the less water it has (when it has lots of starch) the more dry it will be. At the same time, the flavor of the potato will be very special and interesting, and is often combined with some simple 'fillings' once it is cooked, including sour cream and herbs, and of course - salt and pepper.
For baking a potato you will need: potatoes, salt, oil, and some toppings that you add after the potato is cooked. The potato is first scrubbed from all sand, dried in paper towel, and then rubbed with salt for that extra crispiness. You can also rub the skin with oil if you wish. In other words, don't peel the potato but bake it in its skin. Before you put it into the oven you should also pierce the potato skin with a fork, at several spots, so the steam from the evaporating potato water doesn't get trapped inside it. Then place the potato on a rack to allow for good air circulation all around it, and put it into a hot 190 C/375 F oven for about an hour. If you don't want to use a rack, then you can have the potato on a baking pan, but you need to turn it around from time to time to not let it get soggy on one surface. Try to use the baking rack if you can to make things easy for you! And one more thing: some recipes call for wrapping the potatoes in an aluminium foil, but what that does is that potatoes get steamed and will not develop either a crispy skin or the flavor that a true baked potato should have. So, forget about wrapped baked potatoes.
When the potato is baked it is time to serve it! There are several ways to do this but the simple goal is to just remove or open the skin and add some topping on it. As mentioned above, some simple seasoning like salt and pepper may be enough for you. For more 'advanced' toppings use sour cream mixed with some herbs, like chives, or parsley. You can also make a more elaborate topping, perhaps with some meat or shellfish, it is entirely up to what you want to do with your baked potato, and the variation possibilities are many. You can also just cut the potato open, and remove the flesh from inside, and serve it on its own. You can also season it with whatever you wish and then put it back into the crispy potato skin.
You can also roast the potatoes in the oven. To do so, peel the potatoes and cut them into smaller parts. Then once again, rub them in oil and some salt, and put into a hot oven. Here you need to turn them around from time to time to allow for an even browning on all sides of the potato. Serve these potatoes directly as they are cooked, or they will lose their crispy skin as the water inside them will diffuse to the surface.