Jacket potatoes used to be way bigger?

[midnights92]

DH and I both convinced the baking potatoes you can buy these days are far smaller than years ago.

Has shrinkflation spread to agriculture or are we both greedy bastards?

YABU - potatoes aren't getting smaller, that's insane.
YANBU - the conspiracy is real.

I have my own hens but if I bought eggs I’d go for smaller. Hens can lay for longer laying smaller eggs - large eggs put their little bodies at risk of being egg bound when the eggs get stuck. The difference to us is only about 5g but to them is more risk in laying and pain pushing massive eggs out, that their bodies aren’t designed for. More pressure on farmers too.

I think potatoes this year are smaller than normal due to the dry spring / summer.

Also you only tend to get the really large baking potatoes sold loose.

There’s been a potato shortage

I buy lose but the nice ones go quickly so they are tiny, huge or damaged.

In fact, I have cracked this.

Do not use oil. Run your potato under the tap and criss-cross with a knife plus salt and pepper before baking. You will thank me!

I am OK with the size of baked potatoes.

Like Christmas trees!

The loose ones in Tesco are consistently pretty large. I never buy packs of them.

I buy them loose. The ones in multipacks generally are small.

They do vary year by year though, it depends on the growing conditions.

I don't mind what size they are, as long as they're consistent. One whopper potato in a bag of tiddlers is a pisstake. And another thing: there's absolutely no point in baking a potato if you're not going to eat the skin.

We used to make 12 buns
4oz flour, 4oz sugar, 4oz butter and 2 eggs

now it’s 8,5,5,3

our eyes have gotten bigger

Thank you.

I have been saying this for years.

If you buy them loose they’re massive but the ones in plastic are much smaller

I don’t know about buns but I’m measuring the potato in my hand which hasn’t changed size.

I have had loose ones labelled large on my shopping delivery from Tesco for the last couple of weeks. I don’t know what variety they are but they are tasty and the size I can remember from before.

grow your own, easy peasy.

The standard four packs used to be 1kg in the early 2000s. What weight are they now?

Just checked. Packs are around 700-800g now so each potato is roughly 175g compared to the 250g they were before!

You’re right. Baked spuds used to fill a dinner plate. We moved to Scotland a few months ago and they’re still a proper size here. It’s not you.

Yes they're smaller but this was before inflation etc I now have to double up or I just buy them from the fruit n veg shops now proper big potatoes

The four packs are also really inconsistent in size, even if they aren’t huge I still want them roughly same size.

These are the largest and most consistently sized I’ve found
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-british-extra-large-potatoes/801778-691224-691225

It's the canteen and cafe cartel - they get all the big ones, under threat of suppliers having their (potato) eyes poked out.

I agree with you OP, they have definitely shrunk

I often buy a pack of four baking potatoes but I decided to buy individual ones in my delivery order instead as Tesco did not have their Finest range in stock. Fine I thought and cheaper too so win win. But they came this afternoon and are enormous, big enough to feed the “Mumsnet make a chicken last a week” family for the week as well!

I reckon one will feed me and my daughter for our tea but the others won’t go to waste as she’s thinking of making a shepherds pie as well. She’s coming to stay for a few days as I’m having knee surgery tomorrow so I have planned a few meals she can cook.

Mind you, my surgery might be cancelled as apparently there is a problem with one of my pre op tests and I need to see a cardiologist first thing in the morning before they can agree to the surgery. I hope it’s just a mistake with the ecg as it’s taken me five years to get the courage to have the operation and I don’t want a delay now.

So I might need the extra large potatoes now!

Also about 24p each - pick your own, huge and about same price for 6 as a bag of their regular baking potatoes.