#1: Starch sticks the potato shreds to each other and the skillet, plus makes the patty grey-gloopy in the middle. Yuck.

#2: Water in the potato shreds steam the hashbrown into a mashed potato like substance in the middle. Not crispy.

#3: Fat or oil makes the crispy, toasty texture a hashbrown is meant to have. It's necessary to fry the potato shreds in fat to gain this.

Peel potatoes and rinse. Trim away dark spots.

Shred potatoes into a bowl of tapwater. I've used ice water or tepid tapwater. Shred the potatoes into water to loosen the potato starch, and to stop that red-brown oxidation. Oxidation just makes the potato shreds less pretty, doesn't make them inedible.

Dump the potato shreds in a mesh collander and rinse under running tapwater until the water runs clear. When it runs clear the the starch is gone.

Now gently squeeze the shreds dry. Not too hard, don't smash the shreds. Crushing them makes them cook into mashed potatoes. The water/moisture is removed to prevent the potato shreds steaming which inhibits that crispy texture. Can also blot them dry with a lint-free tea towel

Heat up an oiled skillet or griddle on medium high heat. About the same temp you'd fry bacon.

Mix the rinsed and dried potato shreds with about 3 teaspoons corn oil, and a couple of shakes of salt. Gently toss this in a bowl until all the shreds have been oil coated. Yes, you could add herbs or spices. For myself, i just want nice, toasty-crispy hashbrowns.

Here is where you choose what to do. If you want hashbrowns that are more like what a diner serves with breakfast, then plop a solid fat of your choosing in the skillet or griddle.

Butter tastes fantastic, but it browns faster than the potatoes can cook completely.

Lard or shortening are much better choices, and adds the perfect amount of toasty texture and flavors.

Use about 2 tablespoons of whichever fat you choose.

Frying hashbrowns in oil offers less fat than the solid fats. And cook up less like diner style hashbrowns.

Loose Haystack Hashbrowns: Oil or grease the skillet, sprinkle the prepared (as described above) potato shreds loosely and scattered all over the skillet. Let it alone, don't stir, allow some light browning, then spatula the shreds over so the raw shreds are on the bottom. Don't stir them, they need to brown. It's hard to just let them be, but leave them alone. Once the bottom side has browned slightly, then gently flip the raw shreds to the bottom. Fry the loose shreds this way until they're as browned as you choose. Some folks like their hashbrowns very dark brown. Others just want them lightly browned.

For Hashbrown Patties: Oil or grease the skillet the way you choose. Pile the prepared potato shreds in serving-sized piles, very gently pat them down, but not lots! They need air between the shreds to dry and crisp them. These stacks need to be ignored until the bottom has browned into a solid surface. Not burnt-brown, but browned long enough to stay together when they're flipped over. It takes about five to ten minutes to brown them sufficiently to turn with a spatula. Once the bottom is browned enough to hold together, spatula flip the stacks over very gently. Try not to break up the patties. Once turned over, they only need to brown a little more, as most of the cooking happened when cooking the first side.

TIPS: Use a box grater. That makes shreds the right size. Don't use the tiny holes to shred the potatoes, use the larger holes.

Yes, the potatoes could be shredded in a food processor. However, depending on the size of the holes in your food processor's blade plates, you might get very thick shreds that won't get all the way cooked by the time the outsides have turned brown, or too dark brown. This is why a box grater is recommended as those tend to make shreds the right size. Have a Salad Shooter? Oh please don't. Been there, done that, it was a catastrophe.

Don't make one huge hashbrown made from several shredded potatoes. For one, it's impossible to turn one giant, heavy hashbrown patty over, and it cooks all wrong. I've made that mistake, it just doesn't work. Hashbrown patties cook up best if limited to one potato per serving, so don't grab that huge baking potato to make a single, huge hashbrown. Use those middle-sized to smaller potatoes instead.

It may sound good to add lots of ingredients to the raw shredded potatoes, (like chopped onions or something else) but that completely changes the way these cook. You don't want to add ingredients that will cook out liquids, which makes steam, and steam makes mush and not crisped hashbrowns.

Keep it simple, just potato shreds, salt, pepper maybe and whatever sort of oil or fat you choose to mix with the shreds. That's it.

The above is how I cook my hashbrowns. I do highly recommend buying a good non-stick skillet. That makes for much greater success. Also, a well seasoned iron skillet is tops for making great hashbrowns with epic toasty results.

I hope this helps troubleshoot your hashbrown cookin!