What is wrong with frozen baked potatos??

[Bemyclementine]

Bought some from the local shop, DS has 3 wobbly teeth and wanted soft food. Its a trek to a supermarket so popped to the nisa. Frozen spuds. How bad can they be??

What an odd texture! I used "proper" butter and ...it just seemed to disappear. The spuds are small and I added loads of butter and its like it was just absorbed! How? Where did it go? Added loads more, and still they were dry and powdery. Was I unlucky?

I eat Sainsbury’s own brand or McCain. My DH resents the cost! I think they’re all fine and so convenient - not noticed any difference between brands. I used to cook jacket potatoes in microwave and always came out soft and not very nice. I always had to keep turning them too which was a pain.

No way am I cooking one in main oven for 1.5 hrs. It would be nice to know how to crisp them up. Will try air fryer.

In this world! Plenty of people don't, or cannot afford to use it. That is why food banks ask for things that are easy to heat cheaply in particular.

After rubbing on oil and salt to crisp up the skin

I do them at 200 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. Just until they are perfectly crispy really so just keep checking them

cost I suppose but the best baking potatoes around are called Vivaldi - delicious

I had McCains last night! It was good - certainly better than the wet mush you get at pubs. I fried up sine chorizo, onions and mushrooms and ate it all with a salad- so good!

This is my usual M.O. sadly no spuds in the house this evening!

Because I had no normal spuds in and child 1 requested baked potato due to wobbly teeth. It was all the local shop had.

Certainly if you have a microwave and an air fryer, a perfect jacket potato is very quick, easy, never fails and above all, is massively cheaper.

Thank you!

Microwave from raw is grim
Really slimy
Love a frozen jacket

Lucky you!

You must live under a rock if you don't know about all the homeless living in hotel rooms, b&bs and hostels.
Do you think they have ovens in their rooms?

Bannisters are okay, handy for a quick work lunch with cheese etc, avoid the Aldi ones though they are terrible.

1.5 hrs in an oven! You must be flush!

I prefer McCains but DD thinks they taste weird, she prefers the Sainsbury’s ones.

@PistachioTiramisu my new house has an oven that eats electricity so I use the microwave and airfryer instead. When that oven gets replaced I'll be beating it with a big stick.

McCain ones are terrible OP. Felt like I was eating buttered florists Oasis - absolutely awful. Same as their oven fries. That brand clearly relies on those with unsophisticated Lidl palates to be so popular 😆

Just make your own it’s far easier and tastier.

I think the Bannisters ones are best. I keep them in so DD can cook herself a jacket for lunch. If I am doing jacket potatoes for the whole family I wouldn’t bother with them but they are handy for DD.

"Spuds cooked only in the microwave are an abomination"

Seconded.

Agree, much better than McCains

I assumed they'd be rubbish, but then the oven packed up - there was bugger all else gluten free that wasn't a sad approximation of a cake in the shop and the only potatoes were some exorbitantly expensive new potatoes.

They were far nicer than I ever expected - proper, fluffy, fully cooked potato, perfect to add salted butter and extra sea salt flakes to.

I've never told DP, but there are times when I wish they were in the freezer rather than the lucky dip of texture/edibility I get when he makes them.

In my world. My oven is broken ( hobs are fine)

I can’t afford to replace it. Hence frozen jacket potatoes. In the microwave

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I completely fell for the McCains tv advert where they looked lovely and bought a pack with high expectations. I was quite excited by the idea that I'd be getting a proper baked potato in minutes. But I was hugely disappointed and only bought them the once. They weren't the worst thing I've ever eaten but I agree they have a weird taste and don't come anywhere close to a nice Maris Piper or King Edward properly baked in the oven. Not sure whether it's the production process or just that they were crappy potatoes to start with but I wouldn't have them again by choice. I mean they were edible and if I didn't have an oven I might get them but they certainly didn't live up to expectations for me.

I do it quite often, it makes no difference to my electricity bill.

Do you really believe the posters on this thread are homeless and living in hotel rooms, b&bs and hostels? Of course those people don't have access to ovens but they aren't the people on here extolling the virtues of frozen baked potatoes (which sound hideous to me, and as I'm not in the UK I've never seen them here, thank goodness!)

I find the McCain ones almost as good as ones done in the oven. Not powdery or weird in texture at all. I often make my own but sometimes they’re a good alternative if we are in a rush, or for impatient teens to have for a decent lunch.