Blowing up Potatoes

Well I just scared the crap out of myself for the second time in my recent lifetime.  I hope you all know that when you cook potatoes, and this probably goes for any which way you cook potatoes when you keep them whole, that you should puncture them with a fork or something to allow for heat and moisture to escape?  Yeah, wish I had thought of that before I put mine in the oven...

I decided to bake whole potatoes tonight so I put them in a 350 degree oven for over an hour and let them cook...without puncturing them.  The timer went off at the one hour mark so I proceeded to pull one out by hand with an oven glove on.  With my left pointer finger, I decided to touch the surface of the hot potato to see how tender it was.  That's when it blew up in my face.  Literally.  The potato opened up and exploded right before my very eyes!  Luckily it did not land on me and I did not get burned.  But the inside of my oven is covered with potato innards and I think it will take a good 20 more minutes before my heart rate returns to normal...Next time I will go the extra step and poke the damn things with a fork before baking them.