Dried potato

sidevalve

sidevalve

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Simple one really - why did dried potato never really work ?
Ok a few seem to like it but despite the fact that a potato should be the perfect candidate [ie mostly water] it just didn't happen. Is it really beyond the wit of humanity to remove the water from a food then just add it back ?Other things seem to work ok so what is wrong with the potato ?
 
I rather like dried potato. Its quite a useful thing as it can be used to make gnocchi (a Nigella trick) and to thicken soups and stews. I actually like the taste of it in its own right - but I'm not pretending its the same as fresh potatoes.

You say they haven't taken off but Smash is still on sale. But I suppose that because potatoes are fairly cheap and easy to cook from fresh, then its not something for which there is a great demand.

Another reason might be that apparently potatoes (other than as crisps or chips) have fallen out of fashion with younger people. I mean mid-thirty and under. I can't remember the source...
 
sidevalve said:
Simple one really - why did dried potato never really work ?
Ok a few seem to like it but despite the fact that a potato should be the perfect candidate [ie mostly water] it just didn't happen. Is it really beyond the wit of humanity to remove the water from a food then just add it back ?Other things seem to work ok so what is wrong with the potato ?
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This must be a UK thing.
Here there are at least 4 different companies that make dried potatoes and at least 10 different varieties of things in said dried potatoes. Except they aren't called dried they are called instant mashed potatoes. Just add hot water and let stand 5 minutes.
 
Its called instant potato here too and Smash is the famous brand. We also get fresh ready made mashed potato in the chilled food aisle. In general (this echoes another thread) it seems that in the USA packet mixes are more popular whereas here we have aisles and aisles of chilled ready-meals, including side dishes. So most people looking for convenience and speed buy the ready-meals.
 
I agree 'smash' is still out there but TBH it's the only one either of us can name and it's been going for years. Besides it must be easier to add water to powder and hey presto [if the result was the same] than peel boil mash real ones. As for the 'young' I suspect that too many have been brainwashed into believing that anything not recommended in a diet book [whichever one is flavour of the month - sorry]is bad for you.
 
sidevalve said:
I agree 'smash' is still out there but TBH it's the only one either of us can name and it's been going for years. Besides it must be easier to add water to powder and hey presto [if the result was the same] than peel boil mash real ones. As for the 'young' I suspect that too many have been brainwashed into believing that anything not recommended in a diet book [whichever one is flavour of the month - sorry]is bad for you.
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I think it may be the other way round - younger people eat far more chips and crisps than we ever did - and tend to think 'mashed potato' a bit boring and old school. So, they are eating less healthy foods. That is a generalisation, of course! But I do know that potato sales have fallen in the UK in the last 20 years.

Another reason may be the exponentially rising popularity of foreign dishes in the UK - Mediterranean, Italian, Spanish dishes aren't renowned for using potatoes in boiled or mashed form (unless you count Gnocchi).
 
morning glory said:
Its called instant potato here too and Smash is the famous brand. We also get fresh ready made mashed potato in the chilled food aisle. In general (this echoes another thread) it seems that in the USA packet mixes are more popular whereas here we have aisles and aisles of chilled ready-meals, including side dishes. So most people looking for convenience and speed buy the ready-meals.
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I think there are 3 brands of chilled mashed potatoes and at least 2 frozen varieties of mashed potatoes. Now I haven't seen tinned mashed potatoes.
But then again, here there is an entire section of frozen potatoes from mashed to tots to fries to hashbrowns to who knows what else.
 
Cinisajoy said:
I think there are 3 brands of chilled mashed potatoes and at least 2 frozen varieties of mashed potatoes. Now I haven't seen tinned mashed potatoes.
But then again, here there is an entire section of frozen potatoes from mashed to tots to fries to hashbrowns to who knows what else.
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We have tinned whole potatoes. They are quite odd. I quite like them though. Do you get tinned potatoes?
 
Tinned potatoes:

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morning glory said:
I think it may be the other way round - younger people eat far more chips and crisps than we ever did - and tend to think 'mashed potato' a bit boring and old school. So, they are eating less healthy foods. That is a generalisation, of course! But I do know that potato sales have fallen in the UK in the last 20 years.

Another reason may be the exponentially rising popularity of foreign dishes in the UK - Mediterranean, Italian, Spanish dishes aren't renowned for using potatoes in boiled or mashed form (unless you count Gnocchi).
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How many know what chips are made from, or where the beef in their beefburgers actually comes from?

Remember the survey done a few years ago.

Some schools no longer have their allotments in use, because what they were growing didn't "taste like the real thing". Which they'd eaten up until they got the allotments.

Dried spuds and many frozen chips/fries are a lot closer related than many realise.
 
I’m afraid I don’t like anything dried and reconstituted. Potato, turkey, whatever. That famous advertising campaign from all those years ago tried to suggest that it was archaic to make mashed potato from real potatoes. Any superior alien life forms would find such a thing absurd. But I don’t believe that the key factor in why Smash didn’t catch on is to do with any lack of a convenience benefit. Whatever the ease of cooking them, peeling real potatoes remains a tedious chore. The simple truth is, dried and reconstituted is not as good as the real thing, and, I think, probably never will be. I will certainly continue to peel mine with my metal knife, boil them for twenty of my minutes and then smash them all to bits.
 
I think they were very much a product of the 70's here in the UK. The birth of a new age where women were no longer expected to stay in the kitchen but went out to work instead - hence the popularity of a whole new raft of factory produced convenience foods. My mother was a prime example of this trend. Nowadays, such convenience foods are frowned upon in enlightened food circles, even for working mums. Rightly so. However, Smash remains a great lightweight source of carbs for the great outdoors!
 
Ken Natton said:
I’m afraid I don’t like anything dried and reconstituted. The simple truth is, dried and reconstituted is not as good as the real thing, and, I think, probably never will be.
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Well here as an interesting thought: don't we feed our babies on dried reconstituted milk in their bottles? Did you do that @Ken Natton, with your babies? I did - although I tried to breast feed as long as I could (I was working full-time and managed about 6 months with 3 of them). Is it OK for babies to have dried food but not for us?

There is a bit of a conundrum here... I am being purposely provocative. :D
 
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