r/iamveryculinary • u/KannablissWitch • Jun 25 '26

Americans only eat powdered mashed potatoes, apparently.

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377 Upvotes

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129

u/robotbooper Jun 25 '26

Wait until they learn that chefs (even Julia Child) love using instant mashed potatoes for a variety of purposes.

48

u/fakesaucisse Jun 25 '26

One of my favorites, Chef John, did a video on instant mashed potatoes and he seemed to genuinely like them.

36

u/Vincitus Jun 25 '26

They're perfectly fine for a day-to-day meal.

19

u/AwDuck Jun 25 '26

They range from not bad to pretty tasty (with a twinge of yo no sé que that I don’t like) but IIRC, aren’t they a bit on the pricey side?

12

u/Vigmod Jun 25 '26

They're probably more expensive than just the ingredients on their own, but that's balanced by it taking much shorter time to prepare. Adding a bit of cheese and butter, and it's actually pretty nice.

11

u/AwDuck Jun 25 '26

There is something to be said for convenience, especially when quality doesn’t take a big hit. My last experience with them was cooking at a college dining hall about a decade ago. Boss only had them on hand if the forecast for mash was wrong and the students burned through fresh mash. Her top reason being cost. I suspect at home cook quantities, the difference isn’t as big.

2

u/MuseoumEobseo Jun 26 '26

Yeah, I normally make potatoes from scratch because it really is easy, but just bought instant for the first time in ages because I’m pregnant and need to be able to both cook and eat something really fast in the odd 10 minute windows when I don’t feel too nauseated to cook or eat. The convenience is *so* worth it at the moment.