To not realise that McCains baked potatoes are nothing special.

For those getting very uneven cooking in microwave and hard at the bottom, try moving the potatoes to the side of the turn table and away from the turning element. There tends to be an uneven microwave concentration there that over cooks. This seems to have got worse with modern microwaves. Never had it with all ours until the last two we bought.

No, they aren't anything special, but you're rather missing the point. They are meant to be a quick and easy meal.
You're meant to microwave them - they take about 8-10 minutes - not oven bake.
I buy them occasionally, as they're a great "I want something quick and easy" meal.

I buy large potatoes cook them in the oven then freeze them myself so if someone wants them quickly they just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes.

They take 6 minutes in a microwave and you get a crispy potato without a lengthy oven stint. That is the point of them. They are great.

See also yorkshire pudding mix, just add egg and water, so you've just bought a pack of flour and dried milk. Crumble topping, just add fruit, crumble has to be the easiest thing in the world to make ( that's why it's a staple of canteen catering), if you make it yourself you can reduce the amount of sugar and miss out the palm oil. I'm not sure if it's lazyness, an inability to read the list of ingredients and question why some of them are needed, or a desire to increase supermarket profits so they can complain about them.

I bought these once as I just wanted them as a standby freezer option if I ran out of fresh potatoes. The ones I had were revolting. I cooked two, tried a bit of each, and ended up throwing them all out.

They are an additional cost of auDHD 😂 Buy a bag of normal potatoes and let them go green and be unused?? Or buy some horribly overpriced ones for the freezer..and actually manage to cook and eat them when the mood strikes.

Agreed. They are ore cooked so very convenient for the microwave

Bannisters are good, better than McCain, and I like their stuffed with cheese ones, but I oven bake those.

I love this idea. It’s never occurred to me that I could bake multiple potatoes and freeze some for another day.

It’s is really weird that some people are so bothered by them. 😅

People are really affronted by them. It’s like a moral failing if you say you buy them. They are the weight loss injections of the cooking world!

they are quicker, not better just quicker.

I wrap mine in foil, stick them in the ash pan of the fire in the morning and enjoy the most tasty baked potato you will ever eat.

And how big is your freezer?

I will not eat heated up pre cooked potato unless it has been to the correct temperature to avoid that reheat spud flavour. Bleurgh 🤢. CF Heston- starch gelatinisation then retrogradation. Is why proper triple cooked chips are spectacular

Bit late to the party, but if you’re near Sainsbury’s, get their Vivaldi baking potatoes- they are perfect every time. They honestly taste buttery so you technically don’t need to add any butter (but I do). 5mins in the microwave and a couple of mins on the crispy setting on the air fryer…..tasty and crispy jacket potato.

i don’t get the love for a frozen jacket potato they always seem a bit watery and lack flavour to me. It’s a Vivaldi for the win every time!!

YES!!!!!!

Bag of Bannister frozen baked pot are amazing. Mcains are 🤑

I've toyed with the idea of starting a business selling 'dehydrated water - simply dilute to taste' - I wonder if people would actually pay me to buy empty bottles that don't actually help them one bit?!

It's also a US thing, whereby everything has to be a mix, however simple it is for most people to mix two or three basic ingredients themselves. It just wouldn't occur to a lot of Americans that you can just do it yourself without it having to be a finished 'product' - be it Betty Crocker pancake mix, Makin' Bacon or whatever.

Mind you, I still smile when I remember what one poster wrote on a thread ages ago. I can't actually remember what the thread was specifically about; but she was getting married and her MIL-to-be presented her with a handwritten copy of her own 'recipe book' of how to make the foods that her son (the poster's fiance) liked best. As if that wasn't bad enough, one of the recipes was for roast potatoes, and the instructions said "Take several Aunt Bessie's frozen roast potatoes fron the packet and bake them on a tray in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown" !!

I hate microwaved fresh potatoes, they taste of sadness

I love you!!!😂

Microwaved fresh are just vile lumps of gloop, sticky and wierd

I am not fluffing around microwaving and then airfrying just so I can have a baked potato for lunch.

Microwaved from scratch potatoes are always a bit more moist, but the microwaved frozen potatoes taste more like oven-baked from scratch. I'm happy with any of the three, but the frozen ones are great when I'm tired or busy or unwell.

They are shit.
They have no place in this world.

Because that would take time and probably not even save more than about a pound once you take into account the cost of having the oven on for about an hour.

I microwave a raw spud for a few minutes then oven for 15-20 mins to give a crispier skin (airfryer can be used for this stage). If doing a few potatoes, then I might microwave them together for say 8 minutes then bung in the oven. Come out just as nice as if you cooked them in the oven for a long time.

I am not fussed about specific types of spud, but the texture is best with specific ‘baking’ varieties such as Marfona (usually says on the packet) and they’re usually a bit bigger.

The interior of them is extremely dry. It doesn't taste like the jacket potatoes I make. Or have tried anywhere else. I just microwave a normal potato for about 8 mins and then another 10 in a high oven. I do like to add oil and salt but then you need to use a tray.

I thought it was meant to be that it comes out of he microwave with a baked looking skin? Rather than you cook it fully in oven? I only ever had them at work when we didn't have an oven.