To not realise that McCains baked potatoes are nothing special.

[boredwfh]

So my DD is a fussy eater however decided she wanted a jacket potato this week with cheese and bean. As it was a last minute request but eager to find new meals she likes, I only had some sad looking potatoes that were starting to sprout but managed to make one and she thoroughly enjoyed it. I decided whilst doing the weekly shop online & after reading a recent thread where everyone said McCains frozen baked potatoes were good, to add them to my basket thing they’d be good to have in as a quick meal if my DD asks again. Now I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe that it had been part cooked so it would be faster for me to bake, or maybe it had some special seasoning on the jacket. But AIBU to be bemused that it literally is just potato with vegetable oil on the outside & it still needs cooking for 45-55 mins! So no less effort than me just getting a spud and cooking it myself?! Am I the only one who doesn’t get the point of them?!

I’ve never understood why people buy them when it’s just as quick and easy to make a baked potato yourself for a fraction of the cost. You can even put it in the microwave for ten minutes and then in a hot oven for another ten minutes to crisp it up, so you can make a real one in half the time.

You’re supposed to cook them in the microwave. Obviously if you cook a frozen potato in the oven it will take ages.

But you can buy a bag of baked potatoes, bake them all at once (so not wasting the cost of running the oven on one) then freeze them and microwave them. Exact same as mccains frozen baked portatoes, but at a fraction of the price.

I bake about 40 potatoes at a time and shove them in the freezer.

I thought I’d never buy them. Thought it was ridiculous.

I buy them often. I enjoy the convenience of having four, equally sized, always decent, jacket potatoes in my freezer that I can use to get myself out of trouble in the middle of the week when I don’t know what to cook. It’s more convenient than either, buying 1.5kg of potatoes and being annoyed because there are not four decent sized ones, or because the rest go off or realising I don’t have potatoes and having to go to the shop for them.

Yes it’s total frivolity. Yes it’s the high point of laziness. But yes I will still do it 🤣

I've bought them for convenience occasionally but only ever microwaved them. They're nowhere near as good as an oven baked "proper" one, but OK as a standby especially for one person. I'm sure they're not supposed to be oven cooked though OP.

Microwave for 8 mins (for a medium potato) then into the airfryer with a drizzle of oil and salt for 5 mins. Indistinguishable from properly baked potatoes.

I had also assumed a mccains jacket potato would be ready cooked and just in need of a reheat. Still didn't see the point...

id assume that if you did it in the microwave it wouldn’t be crispy on the outside and again, I could just get a normal potato and do it in the microwave. So I’m still not sure what the point of them is.
id agree with the poster about find similar decent sized potatoes- potatoes seem so small nowadays, and mine do sprout really quickly. I must be storing them wrong. But even taking that into account, I’m still not sold on supposed convenience of McCain frozen baked potatoes!

They take 6 minutes in the microwave.

@boredwfh whats special is, it’s ready in 4.5 minutes in the microwave - boom, dinner served!

They sound shit, just buy potatoes.

That feels like something we could say about a lot of food, because potatoes are amazing. I might just start saying “that sound shit, buy some potatoes” next time someone starts telling me about a giant salad.

I agree OP. I bought them once - never again. Okay results for the same amount of time as using a fresh potato and doing it myself, just more expensive. In fact, it took me more time than usual as I usually soften the potato in the microwave and then bake in the oven.

Packs of 'baking' potatoes from the supermarket veg aisle are usually uniform in size.

I can't seem to microwave potatoes properly. They always stay hard in parts of the potato.

I make them in the oven perfectly but if I want a quick potato for lunch I'll use the frozen ones. They taste really nice and go soft throughout.

The point is that you do it in the microwave but because of the oil the skin crisps up a bit. I love them, they come out of the microwave really nice. I wouldn't cook it in the oven though, as PP have said, I'd just use a regular potato for that.

They are convenient and tasty.

That’s a great idea if you have the freezer space.

Frozen jacket spuds are very useful for quick lunches if I am working at home. They cook quickly in the microwave, but are much nicer than microwaved raw potatoes.

I’m probably coming from a different perspective here. I’d rarely have one at home as of course fresh potatoes are better. But if I’m working 3 x 13 hours shifts on the bounce (NHS) and want a quick, portable, hot snack, it’s a good change from reheated pasta if I only have access to a microwave. The target audience perhaps isn’t people at home who have plenty of time to buy raw potatoes, micro for a bit, bake for a bit etc

I think they're great! Three minutes in the microwave, job done!

When I had a microwave (and hungry children) they were great for a quick meal. I think they are nicer than a microwaved from raw potato and quicker than part microwaved then finished in the oven ones. I never even thought of cooking them in the oven. I don’t have a microwave now so I don’t buy them.

My old combination microwave had a baked potato setting that microwaved and used the fan oven at the same time to crisp the outside. They came out very nice in about 20 minutes.

I agree with you, no quicker and either soggy outside because done in the microwave or take just as long in the oven. And they were a weird dry crumbly consistency and tasteless too. Normal jacket spuds all round for us!

I don't like reheated potatoes, I get the packs of 4 fresh potatoes that are described as 'baking potatoes' and microwave for a few minutes then finish off in the air fryer for another 5-10 minutes as I think this is the best compromise of time and taste. If you don't want 4 baked potatoes before they go all sprouty, you can just use them as you would any other potatoes.

The only benefit that I can see is that you can always have a potato handy to bake. Fresh spuds don't last as well as they did. In every other way fresh is better.

Five mins in microwave, crisp off in airfryer, job done! Who’d have thought jacket potato snobbery existed? Only on mumsnet!!