Mashed potato in a packet can be cheaper than making your own and more economical as you can use as much as you need. Many have 98-99% potato in them so it's a high quantity. A generic supermarket brand can be bought quite cheaply and then you add more pepper and seasoning to it. I would recommend trying it to save money and also time. I do love freshly made and chunky mash, but sometimes I don't have time or I just want a small portion to go with my pie.
More economical? Really? It's such a versatile food and one of the cheapest. I prefer fresh for everything. So yum.
I wouldn't necessarily call them more economical - since they usually sell for about $1 a piece near me, and I can get a whole 5lb bag of potatoes for around $3.00. However they are convenient when you're craving some mashed potatoes and don't feel like waiting around for the potatoes to steam/boil - not to mention all the pot and pans involved with making them from scratch. I don't buy the "just add water" pouch variety often, since I don't care for the artificial flavorings in it, but I do typically have a box of instant mashed potatoes in my pantry. However I usually make mashed potatoes from scratch. Especially if I am roasting something in the oven for over an hour, I will toss some potatoes in to bake along with it, then run them through my potato ricer into some milk, butter, salt and pepper. I don't even need to peel them since the peels stay in the ricer. There are also other uses for instant mashed potatoes, such as thickening soups, or using as part of a breading on fried stuff.
I too like freshly made mashed potatoes! I do buy the instant ones because it's so easy to make! It tastes okay too. There is nothing like the freshly made spuds. The instant ones goes on sale. I like the instant spuds where all you have to do is add hot water and presto mashed potatoes. I add butter, lemon pepper and dried parsley and if I have sour cream I'll add that to my instant mashed potatoes too.
It's economical if you want to have a portion and I'm talking time as well as money. If you cook for yourself making a whole pan is really not economical and boiling two potatoes and then mashing them takes up more power and manpower. If the instant mashed potato is 99% then that's pretty high and at 50p for 250g that's cheaper than buying potatoes and the time spent preparing them. Cooking for a family is different, but I am not and of course fresh is best, but sometime eating too many carbs isn't healthy and having a small portion satisfies the craving and you don't feel you have to eat it if you have made it in bulk.
Getting instant potatoes is mainly for convenience if anything. I tend to purchase a bag of potatoes anyway when I get groceries. Most of the time I do eat instant potatoes simply because I don't have the time to boil and smash.
Team carbs! Don't get me started lol. Ah well.. potatoes are some of the cheapest food in our house. I'm assuming they'd be more filling whole too, no? I've never had instant, but there's just nothing like a whole, fresh food. For me! I understand the convenience thing.. it's the one thing I won't allow into my eating habits though.
I too have never tasted Smash, as it just doesn't appeal to me at all. My husband has and tells me his mum used to make it all the time when he was growing up, and his verdict? VILE, and I didn't think it would be anything but LOL Luckily for me, potatoes are very cheap here, and I actually enjoy making my food from scratch. It's not only fresh, it's also tastier and healthier
I wouldn't call them more economical either - especially as real potatoes are not only one of the cheapest healthy foods that you can buy - but are generally extremely easy and quick to prepare and particularly so - if done in the microwave or pressure cooker. In fact as instant mashed potatoes are nothing more than an overly processed convenience food containing at least 9 additional chemical ingredients - I much prefer to eat real potatoes that only contain 1 ingredient rather than a chemical concoction masquerading as potatoes - as not only are they healthier - but real value for money as they can be added to almost any meal. I would also just add - eating carbs is not unhealthy - in fact its quite the opposite. Particularly as carbohydrates are very necessary - as they are the body's main source of energy and although consuming heavily processed carbs such as the ones contained in commercially made - sweets, biscuits, cakes, soft drinks and any other foods containing artificial sugars - would be bad for health - it is not so with the natural unprocessed carbohydrates found in wholegrain foods, vegetables, fruits, legumes and potatoes - as they are actually beneficial for the body - as not only do they provide energy and fiber - but also many of the necessary nutrients that the body needs in order to function correctly.
I never had the mashed potatoes you buy ready made in powder at the supermarket. Homemade mashed potatoes with original potatoes are so easy to do, and delicious. I don't see the point of buying it in the powder and mixing it up. It is almost the same amount of time to do both!
I can get a ten pound bag of potatoes on sale for about $1.99 where I live. My family loves mashed potatoes so I'm always making them. I've never tried the instant kind. Do they even taste like potatoes? I think I'd stick with making my mashed potatoes from scratch.
I can't stand instant mash at all. It's got a strange texture and a really weird aftertaste. Where I like, you can buy a 15 kg bag of spuds for around £4 and if you store them correctly, they last for ages. There's no way that instant is more economical, even if you factor in the power costs.
Instant mashed potatoes are gross to me, so fresh will always be better. I am not sure I would consider the instant mashed potato packets to be economical either because they sell for a dollar or more a package, and I can buy a 5lb bag of potatoes for $1.50 and can get at least 3 meals from that. Not to mention that fresh potatoes do not have preservatives in them.
Personally I love fresh potato mash, but I rarely have the time to do it, and certainly price is higher, not just potatoes price, but gas or electricity used to get them softening, plus time involved. In addition, instant potato mash will always look great as opposed to your hand-made mash. So definitely my vote goes for instant instead, not to mention it is always at hand when you need it, and no need of refrigeration to preserve. You only use the amount you need every time, something that is hard to calculate when doing it fresh.
I definitely agree about the prices. I can actually get 10 pound bags for around the $3-4 mark, which is even cheaper than yours, Tom. As for the time consumption, I tend to make some up in advance. Did you know you can freeze mashed potatoes? I personally don't add things like milk/butter before freezing them because I prefer to do that when I reheat the potatoes, but you can actually make a huge batch all at once and freeze if you really wanted to. Otherwise, I just tend to make them fresh while I'm cooking something else. It only takes one knife, one pot, and one masher for me to make a fresh batch, so not all that bad.
I don't buy potatoes in bulk, because they go bad too quickly in this high humidity. I used to use a lot of the packaged instant potatoes, and although I tend to keep real potatoes on hand (a few at a time), I also often will have a package or two of instant potatoes. Although they may not be as economical to some, when you're cooking in small batches, and have limited time and energy, sometimes instant is the way to go. Nowadays, I often just microwave a small potato that's scored, and eat it with butter, salt, pepper, and sometimes onion dip, but if I'm making an actual dinner, occasionally I'll just make up a package of the mashed potatoes. Since I have a lot of wrist and hand pain, it's often easier to use the instant potatoes, rather than cooking them and wearing out my arms/hands mashing them. The line I draw is on the holidays, when I will make the mashed potatoes from scratch, because the texture is more authentic, and reminds me of holidays while growing up.
For me, it depends what I'm in the mood for and how much time I have to prepare the dish. Mashed potatoes from scratch does have a rich, authentic taste but I believe instant potatoes have a nice taste as well. I don't see either one as superior to the other.
I guess it is true that it is a more economical choice if you count the amount of gas and soap you'll be using to cook regular potatoes, not to mention the time and effort you'll have to put in as well. And like you said, seeing as this is one of the types of products that probably don't require as much filler or preservatives, then it wouldn't be such a bad choice. I just don't like the texture that much, personally, as I like smashed a lot more than mashed, so that's pretty much the only reason why I'd favor the natural type.
I have never seen an instant mashed potato brand here in our groceries. We usually just buy potatoes in our local markets and boil then mash them. My baby, especially when he was younger, loves mashed potato. He could eat it everyday lol. Now, though, we just use potatoes on different meals as he is older now. Potatoes are really very versatile!
Since the small market is just outside our village's gate, I don't bother stocking on food like meat, fish or even vegetables. When we need potatoes, I go to that small market or sometimes I just ask the maid to buy for me. So our mashed potatoes are freshly made from real potatoes and we love french fries that we had made ourselves. And we are saved from preservatives that may be with those ready-to-cook products.
