To be so annoyed at potato sizes

[Blinkingheckythump]

I am so sick of tiny little potatoes that mean I need to peel double the amount of them, I know they never used to be so small. Even "baking" potatoes are just standard sized these days. Why oh why don't they grow regular sized potatoes anymore?! Some are literally smaller than "new" potatoes. Is there some kind of tiny potato conspiracy going on? Aibu to just want decent sized potatoes?! It's so frustrating I'm actually considering just giving up and making smash 😂

I used to live in Germany and the potato range was wide and allowed for very specific choices. I definitely miss that variety (and also availability of really good yellow waxy spuds).

Bloody love potatoes. Really miss simple boiled potatoes being an absolute treat. The potato situation in the UK is lacking.

It's a supermarket conspiracy to starve the Poor to death by forcing them to eat three small potatoes each instead of one large between a family of four, so the kilo of spuds runs out more quickly.

@WutheringHeights66

But that’s how potatoes come out, not perfectly one sized spuds. If you want those, pay over the odds and buy the four “jacket potatoes” in a pack.

I’m with the unpeeled mash and crush them in their skins camp. Mashed with the skin on over a shepherds pie is delightful, smashed on a tray with olive oil and baked is also lovely. They’re both also a novelty and my adventurous family love something different, they usually think it’s been done on purpose not that I’m just a lazy mare.

Use what you have and use your imagination.

I do buy those! And they aren't baking potato sized anymore. And you're not eating mashed potatoes if you're leaving the skin on!

@lunepremiere79

Roast and mash with the skins on, like others said - you get more nutrients that way and save yourself so much time! I haven't done it in years

Yes but I want lovely roasts and mash, not substandard importers with skin on!

[quote Uncomplicated]Buy a rumbler www.lakeland.co.uk/62813/Lakeland-Potato-Rumbler-Electric-Potato-Peeler[/quote]
I'm not paying 40 quid got something to peel my potatoes for me. If it was a fiver though, that'd be a game changer 😂

@nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut

Wouldn't bother. Just wash them, rub them with coarse salt and black pepper and bake them

That's no good if you're doing a cottage pie or the like that requires mash though!

@neverknowinglyunreasonable

I agree. I've got around this by moving the potatoes closer to my face so they appear bigger.

It’s not often that I snort, but I did!

I'm not in the UK, but we have a range of little and big potatoes, not to mention medium size. Strange that yours have shrunk!

The 4 pack of baking potatoes are so small these days, they are a little on the small size even for 5yo DD2.

I hate peeling potatoes and the small ones make the job intolerable. I have solved this problem by making DH peel for roasties (he wants them, he peels them) and buying frozen mash. Every other potato dish is served with skins on.

You could try not eating potatoes they are just a bag of starch anyway.

Climate change WILL make growing decent potatoes harder.
I know we're waffling on and I might get a roasting but I had to chip in.

(a) life is too short to peel a potato. Especially little ones. Leave the skins on.

(b) don't buy from supermarkets. Go to a greengrocer and you can choose any size of spud you like.

@VelvetChairGirl

You could try not eating potatoes they are just a bag of starch anyway.

Potatoes are a good source of Vit C and potassium. Contains some protein which is of high quality and of a type that contributes to gut health. Source of fibre.

On ever challenged budgets potatoes are important to people who can’t afford to fill up on lean chicken, nuts and broccoli and may already be eating their fill of lentils etc.

I suspect this is because a growing proportion of potatoes consumed in the UK are bought processed (in the form of pre-prepared chips supplied to the catering trade, oven chips, ready meals, etc) rather than as a bag of spuds. The processors prefer larger potatoes - smaller surface area, less peeling, less waste for the same amount of end product - and so the larger ones are going to them rather than ending up in the supermarket.

I also noticed that, after the heatwave summer of 2018 when we were all warned about prices rises, while prices did not jump as much as feared they were much more irregular in size and appearance when bagged up at the supermarket, and have been ever since.

@TheChemicalMother I agree. Potatoes get a bad rep and their nutritional value is often ignored because of their preparation and starch content.

It’s a shame considering it’s one of the crops that positively flourishes in this country. I suppose it depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your diet.

Have you tried getting yams/sweet potatoes instead, OP? They are enormous. I can only eat half of one per meal. And I don’t need to peel them - I just stab them, cook them in the microwave, then scoop out the flesh, which separates easily from the skin, and mash it with butter salt and black pepper.
The uneaten half keeps in the fridge.
They have a better glycaemic index than potatoes too.

Yams and sweet potatoes aren't the same as potatoes though. They are completely different flavours. I mean, I use both sweet and ordinary potatoes in my cooking but there are times when it just has to be a potato.

@neverknowinglyunreasonable

I agree. I've got around this by moving the potatoes closer to my face so they appear bigger.

‘This potato is SMALL. That potato is FAR AWAY.’ 😀

Grow your own

@Lockheart

It was a bad year for them last year, it's no conspiracy. The weather was dry and hot, no good for potatoes which need plenty of rain.

We also had next to no apples when normally the orchard at my parents would still be knee-deep in windfalls even now!

We noticed no difference in the annual bombardment from our back neighbour’s huge apple tree that overhangs our garden!

🤷🏻‍♀️ don't peel them, don't mash them!

Just cover them with veggie oil & salt in a baking dish and leave them in the oven at 200-220°C and 45 minutes later you have perfect mini potatoes.

The GM food ban

SoupDragon I am lucky in that we have a Spud Stop in our village, if I want actual potatoes.
It’s an ingenious unmanned self service shed run by the local potato farmer.
Various potato breeds are in bags in closed compartments - you dial in the number of the compartment you want, stick your coins in, and that compartment opens to dispense your lovely fresh farm spuds! So you can choose big baking ones if required.
My adult DC always laugh at the very concept of a potato dispenser rather than sweets/newspapers etc - they say it’s proof I live in a hick village! (They moved to Edinburgh for work).

I don't peel them. Mash them with skins on, then you get all the fibre. Washed first of course! And I cut them up quite small to boil. With cream/soured cream, butter, garlic and/or mustard and some salt and pepper, they get lovely, fluffy and super tasty and nobody gives a jolt about the skins.

@Babdoc

There is a potato vending machine in the commune of Nouvion in northern France, about 15km north of Abbeville on the road towards Boulogne. It has been there since at least 2014, so comfortably predates the Bryden Spud Stop. We almost died laughing when we first saw it - it was visible from several hundred metres away and we slowed down to see what it was.

Nouvion had a population of about 1,300 when it opened, so this is either a backwater village thing, or - as is the case in Nouvion - it's aimed at passing traffic but located in a place where it can be easily restocked by the farmers who own it.