If you were raised eating instant mashed potatoes, you might think that is what mashed potatoes are supposed to taste like. But once you've had freshly-mashed potatoes with some butter and cream and a little salt, it's hard to go back to the dehydrated stuff. Midcentury cooks relied on instant mashed potatoes (IMP) because they were fast and easy and didn't spoil. And to be honest, those were reasons why IMP was invented.
That was hundreds of years ago, when the Andean communities of South America took the liquid out of potatoes to make them last forever, or at least during hard times. Those freeze-dried taters called chuño were also crucial for an army on the move as the Incan Empire expanded. They didn't taste like much, but they filled a warrior's stomach and weren't too heavy to carry. The US Army developed IMP for World War II for the same reasons. And that was the beginning of the consumer market for IMP, although they had to be improved before veterans would touch them.
Once you start thinking about instant mashed potatoes, you realize that a lot of modern life has followed the same path. Take something good and "improve" it by making it more convenient, and in the process, it loses the qualities that made us like it in the first place. Read about instant mashed potatoes and the ways they mirror modern society at Duck Soup. -via Nag on the Lake
Newest 2 Comments
Today I learned why I don't like Pringles.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
Instant potatoes may not be as good as fresh mashed, but they're still worlds better than the "whipped" potatoes included in many (most?) TV dinners. Those are just slightly less awful than eating a kitchen sponge. They seem to exist only to look good in the picture on the box and push the weight and calorie count up a bit.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)