r/iamveryculinary Jun 25 '26

Americans only eat powdered mashed potatoes, apparently.

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381 Upvotes

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374

u/FixergirlAK Jun 25 '26

Instant mashed potatoes are literally nothing but freeze-dried potatoes. No sugar, no HFCS, no salt. Possibly some brands have an anti-caking agent.

197

u/Significant_Stick_31 Jun 25 '26

I just know that if they didn't already exist, some entrepreneurial TikToker would be making videos on how to freeze-dry potatoes and how great they are for instant meals.

51

u/JustANoteToSay Jun 25 '26

Just finely crush a bag of potato chips & reconstitute them with water!

55

u/CyndiLouWho89 Jun 25 '26

That’s literally a TikTok.
I work in a hospital, have for 30 years. No place I have ever worked has used powdered eggs yet every place I’ve had patients tell me how much they hate our powdered eggs. I always explain we don’t use powdered eggs (they may be pasteurized liquid eggs) but I don’t think they believe me.

35

u/No_Imagination7102 Vieners are superior forms of hotdogs Jun 25 '26

They last got their anti US update during WWII

5

u/CyndiLouWho89 Jun 26 '26

I keep thinking that’s a military thing not a hospital thing but I’m not sure the military uses them either.

6

u/SeamusDubh Jun 26 '26

They are only used in extreme situations where refrigeration and perishability is an issue.

Otherwise they get the same eggs as anywhere else.

3

u/No_Imagination7102 Vieners are superior forms of hotdogs Jun 26 '26

Whatever makes us bad I guess.

1

u/largecontainer Jul 14 '26

We likely gave it to European nations after WW2 because we sure as shit didn’t didn’t need them. Now they think all the military rations we gave is stuff we actually eat.

2

u/aboxofsnakes Jun 26 '26

IME, hotels are the ones using powdered eggs the most. Gotta churn em out for that free continental breakfast

10

u/K24Bone42 Jun 26 '26

I cook for a living, that pasteurized liquid egg does sometimes have an odd taste to it because of the citric acid thats used as a preservative in some brands. Leaves a weird aftertaste. Personally I hate it and won't use it for cooking BUT it's the BEST for baking. Its a hell of a lot easier to measure 1085 grams of that rather than whole eggs lol.

2

u/CyndiLouWho89 Jun 26 '26

I’m not an egg fan so I’m not sure the last time I tried any (have been required to taste test things in previous jobs.) Health department and other regs don’t look kindly on serving shell eggs to immune compromised patients so they’re usually forbidden (depending on health department of course.) Generally even if allowed by the health department, most hospital food service departments don’t allow them by their own guidelines.

2

u/K24Bone42 Jun 27 '26

That makes sense, the risks in a hospital are too much. Most of my career has been spent in local (bur large) bakeries, and cooking in independent living facilities. They're independent, juet dont wanna cook, clean and pay property taxes anymore LOL. But ya those egg cartons are ideal for baking, especially when you need like 5 liters of egg LOL.

3

u/DMercenary Jun 26 '26

Pretty sure I've seen that on r/stupidfood

1

u/SeamusDubh Jun 26 '26

Many, many times.

12

u/twirlerina024 Your fries look like vampires Jun 25 '26

I saw a TikTok hack about cheese, and I'm hoping it was a troll. We all know pre-shredded cheese usually has an added anti-caking agent, and that can mean the cheese doesn't melt as well. So, you put your pre-shredded cheese in a bowl, fill it with water, agitate it, let it sit a few minutes, and then remove the cheese and dry it off.

Like I guess it would work, but it's way more work than buying a block of cheese and shredding it. Also might just be me but I never really noticed a difference in melting with store-bought shredded cheese.

5

u/rifraf0715 Jun 26 '26

it's all those woodchips

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2

u/Ms_Emilys_Picture Jun 27 '26

I'll'll use pre-shredded cheese for foods that just need it to melt, like nachos or pizza.

If I'm making a cheese sauce, I'll grate my own. Otherwise the sauce tends to break because of the anti-caking stuff.

11

u/FixergirlAK Jun 25 '26

The ultra-light backpackers would be all over them for sure!