# instant potatoes



## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

I'm not much of a rice eater but have quite a bit of beans & rice put up. Rather have a lot of potato put up. So have been doing some experimenting with instant potato. 

So I bought three brand name instant mashed potato last week. I didn't even pay attention to prices. I did regular mashed potatoes with each. Basically hashed browns with each. And chicken pot pie with each. Hungry Jack was the best in each category.

I think the best way to put them up is vacsealed in quart mason jars.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Okay. That's good info. I store potatoes, too, but I've only got the instant mashed type. Stores around here don't seem to carry the sliced kind that you like. I'll have to look around, a new Trader Joe's just opened in our area and I haven't been in it yet.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Augason Farms Emergency Food Dehydrated Potato Slices, 20 oz which can be mail ordered from Walmart.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Besides the instant potatoes I've put up in Mylar bags, I also found canned "new" 
potatoes by one of the big name canners. We tried them first and now I've got a 
supply of them laid in too.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

paraquack said:


> Besides the instant potatoes I've put up in Mylar bags, I also found canned "new"
> potatoes by one of the big name canners. We tried them first and now I've got a
> supply of them laid in too.


I like the canned potatoes, too, and they store forever it seems.

P.S. Slice them with onions and peppers, yum.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

HuntingHawk said:


> Augason Farms Emergency Food Dehydrated Potato Slices, 20 oz which can be mail ordered from Walmart.


Thanks, Hawk. I just ordered a 20 oz trial can from Amazon, and I'll give them a try.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

What's the shelf life on instant mashed and au gratin potatoes when stored in mylar with O2 absorbers? I keep them too but just in the retail packages. We eat them often enough to keep a good rotation going. A prepper meal can be made with cheesy au gratin taters and spam. Really good with some cajun seasoning.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I don't have any bulk potatoes stored up yet. Only the individual packs of instant "water only" packs. They are mylar sealed, but not vacuum packed.
I might have 1 can of AF potato flakes on the top shelf. They should be good for 5+ years.


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## Salt-N-Pepper (Aug 18, 2014)

HuntingHawk said:


> Augason Farms Emergency Food Dehydrated Potato Slices, 20 oz which can be mail ordered from Walmart.


I've got some of those, they work great.

I find that I like to soak them far longer than what the directions say to fully re hydrate them. Just an FYI if y'all get some.


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## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

Arklatex said:


> What's the shelf life on instant mashed and au gratin potatoes when stored in mylar with O2 absorbers? I keep them too but just in the retail packages. We eat them often enough to keep a good rotation going. A prepper meal can be made with cheesy au gratin taters and spam. Really good with some cajun seasoning.


I buy instant mashed potatoes from the LDS home storage center, they say they are good for 30 years in the #10 can with o2 absorbers. Mine get rotated every couple years, but I have not noticed any deterioration.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

I think AF also sales diced potato freeze dried in #10 cans. Would be a good choice for soups & stews.

Would probably want to order some AF butter & cheese along with the potato slices for making the au gratin potatoes.

Variety is a good thing with your emergency food stores.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

I had an old chum who was in the side line catering business. He turned out a real good mustard tater salad using instant tater flakes. Much better than the slop which come in the wax buckets at Sams.


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

We have a lot of canned potatoes (whole and sliced) as well as bulk amounts of instant mashed potatoes that have been vacuum sealed. While visiting a friends property up in Wisconsin last year, I passed a "farmer's market" in a parking lot that was selling 50lbs bags of potatoes for $7. I bought 2 of them and canned them myself. So far they still look great! We're seriously ramping up our gardening this year, and will be canning the potatoes we grow from that as well.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

I've canned white diced potatoes in pint jars before to have available for adding to stews.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Glad to hear Instant potatoes can be stored for so long. I store a lot of rice and beans and have recently started adding instant potatoes to the mix. I love potatoes so that works out well.


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## SGT E (Feb 25, 2015)

Local GFS Store (Restaurant Supply) has Hash browns..Au Gratin and many more gallon cartons of dehydrated potatoes for less than 7 bucks a gallon!

I just dump em in quart ball jars and add a dessicant pack and pull a vacuum on them....After trying my Y2K stores that are some of the first I put up are the exact same as what I bought this last week. I have 10 quarts of potatoes left from Y2K and a lot of small amounts of other stuff that seem to be keeping perfectly in just a vacuum sealed jar!..Oatmeal...Green beans from my garden dehydrated and corn meal and flour. Even have a couple jars of dehydrated Roma tomato slices and a few jars of green bell peppers that are just fine! You can also dehydrate onions and cucumbers but have never kept those over a couple of years so I dont know what the max storage time is on them?

I also dehydrate fresh and pickled jalepeno peppers and they seem to keep really well too....It's a good addition to anyone's food supply...keeps the "BLANDS" at bay!

Keep em cool...keep em dark and keep em still....Check seals every 6 months to a year and leave em alone.

Most of my other stuff I've cycled through a couple of times but it's good to know whats going to last pretty much indefinatley !


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## Salt-N-Pepper (Aug 18, 2014)

This thread got me curious, so I picked up a box of Hungry Jack last night and am going to compare it to another brand we have on hand (Idahoan).


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Salt-N-Pepper said:


> This thread got me curious, so I picked up a box of Hungry Jack last night and am going to compare it to another brand we have on hand (Idahoan).


Those are the ones I keep too.








The Idahoans only take water to prepare, and that's the only reason I chose them.
I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the differences.


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## 7052 (Jul 1, 2014)

Kauboy said:


> Those are the ones I keep too.
> View attachment 10714
> 
> 
> ...


We get those same ones @ SAMS Club. We repack them into the amount we would use per meal and vacuum seal those separately, then store them in 5 gal buckets w/ the date and instructions in each bucket.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

How is nutritional value of the processed dried potatoes?

I've only eaten the fresh ones and I always leave skin on for more nutrition and fiber.

What I have left for a stash in the root cellar will be going back into the garden in a month after we don't have to worry about frosts.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Cant imagine any variant of a cooked Irish Tate having much food value other than carbs. The peelings are much healthier. Seen an article a few years back where they were doing blood tests on folks to how various foods spiked blood sugar levels. One white baked tate made it ding the bell on the same level as a big 3 Musketeers Candy Bar. Guess they would be good for energy maybe. Sweet Tates are crazy good for a person. In fact that is what some of Obummers kin folks live on over there in Africa most likely.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Very high in Vt C (50% DV/potato) and potassium (more than banana). Good on B vitamins and protein (10% of cals are protein and a _complete_ protein source).

The carbs are complex so should not cause sugar problems, but glycemic index is greater than rice.

Overall looks better than rice for nutritional value, more complete protein source.

Potatoes are part of my winter storage vegetable mixture. They get cooked along with fresh carrots, cabbage, beets, turnips and winter squashes (cold cellar). They can all be boiled one-pot, or except the cabbage all baked together. Simple clean up/cooking and saves energy. I usually have a few hundred ibs of fresh potatoes in the root cellar.

I need to see how the instant version stacks up for nutrition. Would be good to have for SHTF, backpacking, or BOB vs the rice I have stored now.


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