What happened to jacket potatoes?

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Try your local market. Supermarkets tend to accept only perfect veg within a defined size range.

And try a baked sweet potato. Much bigger ones available loose in supermarkets, they cook faster and they caramelise a bit.

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Man, I have Crohn's disease. My trigger is fruit and veg with the skin. A massive jacket potato with heaps of butter, baked beans and cheese would see me to A&E. Haven't had one in over 8 years. I miss them so badly...

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aaron-ninjaelf@reddit

That's so interesting, potatoes and cheese are some of the few things I can eat! I think fruit and veg (fibre, especially insoluble figure) is a trigger for everyone with the disease.

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ToeMany8953@reddit

I have coeliac it's my go to dinner when my 'darling' husband and 'loving' children have ordered in a gluten feast 🤬🤮😭

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LabyrinthsandLayers@reddit

If you bake and, top it and only eat the flesh but leave the skin, is that fine?

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MileeMachine@reddit

This might not help you but have you peeled the potato and then baked it?

I've done this a few times with a little oil and salt spread all over it, baked in the oven at the highest you can get it and it makes almost like a inner/outer potato crust. It's not exactly the same but I find it pretty close.

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ElCunto1999@reddit

The local market greengrocer always has a pile of huge baking potatoes on his stand.

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thesteelmaker@reddit

Rhod Gilbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf2WkwNug0g

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sharmrp72@reddit

Lidl. They do individual baking potatoes and they are HUGE.

None of the other supermarkets have anything like..

2 hrs in the oven.....amazeballs

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amaluna@reddit

Have you considered that you were smaller back thenV?

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Dans77b@reddit

I remember I had a huge toy aeroplane when I was 5, we moved to America and it got lost in the boxes, it was probably a year or two later when we found it again. I was so disappointed at the tiny thing I held before me.

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The-Otters-Pocket@reddit

But how big was the toy aeroplane?

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Dans77b@reddit

Somewhere between 4" and 4'.

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ledow@reddit

I buy the frozen McCain's ones. They microwave in a matter of minutes and are generally quite huge. I wouldn't normally manage more than 2, and I have quite a large appetite (I only eat in the evening, skipping breakfast and lunch, so a meal has to be a MEAL by the time I get home and want something to eat).

But if I wanted to do it myself (e.g. for bonfire night), I'd go to a farm shop. The one opposite my house has some RIDICULOUS size potatoes quite often. Normally those are the ones being sold off (to other countries, to the food manufacturers for chips, crisps and making up parts of ready-meals, etc.) rather than sold individually in little bags.

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Theratchetnclank@reddit

Those potatoes aren't being used for crisps and chips, the regular variety of potatoes sold to us consumers (Maris piper, king edward, Rooster) all have to much sugar to be suitable for chips and crisp. They brown too much too quickly and have too much water content.

They have their own special varieties.

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Loose_Acanthaceae201@reddit

Yes, farm shops and greengrocers are the places to go to find proper big potatoes.

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fistmcbeefpunch@reddit

Your hands have got bigger OP

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Future_Direction5174@reddit

Loose ones tend to be bigger than those in the bags. What I hate is finding a nice large one, baking it perfectly then cutting it open to discover it has a hole in the middle.

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Gonzo1888@reddit

Now I know what I want for dinner tonight

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Jack-Rabbit-002@reddit

See I'm lucky man there's a pretty cheap place near me Proper big Jacket cheese & chilli now the days are getting colder will become my go to breakfast!

Don't think I'd bother going Supermarket all the veg etc seems to have shrunk and feels tasteless Need to get yourself a decent Grocers

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bazzanoid@reddit

Support your local businesses. Farm shop or greengrocers. They will always have the biggest spuds for baking. Even in a bad crop year, I've been getting chunkier spuds locally than in the supermarkets

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LadyFinduillas@reddit

I was thinking the same thing. Everyone on this post complaining about the pre-packed spuds from the supermarket, but they keep going back to the supermarket rather than elsewhere. I know it's not available to everyone, but I try and get stuff like this from our local market. The fruit and veg stall on there has a huge range of items including baking potatoes which are roughly the size of a boulder. The other fab thing about going to the market stall is that if you want to buy something like a Swede, but can't face preparing it yourself, they'll do it for you for just a few extra pence. Bloody brilliant!

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Dominoscraft@reddit

Morrisons wonky potatoes, if that fails they have dedicated baking spuds but cost an arm, leg and kidney

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Majestic_Staff5486@reddit

You might be best trying a green grocers, lots of produce in supermarkets has become so standardized, in terms of sizes and weights. I don't feel that's such an issue at an independent grocers.

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Numerous_Ticket_7628@reddit

I wish someone would open Spud U Like again!

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JazzyBee93@reddit

I need to know the recipe for their spicy chick pea topping😭 I was obsessed and can never replicate it properly!

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zonaa20991@reddit

I work in a shopping mall. It closed, then reopened under James Martin, and recently closed again. Since it’s been closed we’ve been using it for our morning briefings. We went in on Monday and they’d taken their furniture back over the weekend. You have never seen a group of grown men and women so angry at the fact we couldn’t sit down for 12 minutes

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NortonBurns@reddit

Awww, damn. I'd heard the White Rose one was still open - which was the one I last ate in, over 30 years ago, back when the centre was new.
I'd added to my 'to do' list for next time I was going to be up in Leeds.

As far as I know, that was the very last surviving 'spad you lick ay'.

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InJaaaammmmm@reddit

Spud U Like! More like Sit U Don't!

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Melodic-Document-112@reddit

For it to fail again due to lack of customers?

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Numerous_Ticket_7628@reddit

It was just a wish for it to still be open so I could get a nice, hearty baked potato on the go, not a business proposition. Jees.

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modelvillager@reddit

It's Spudulika.

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Azikt@reddit

R/unexpectedVictoria Wood.

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LabelFiddler@reddit

Kathy Burke

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goatsaber@reddit

(It’s exotic)

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Dazpiece@reddit

I think you'll find it's No-Spuddy-No-Likey

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BigDsLittleD@reddit

It's validating to know I'm not the only one that calls it that.

Or Spudoolikay to make it sound fancy.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I never tried before!

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Numerous_Ticket_7628@reddit

It was great, fast food jacket potatoes!

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CiderDrinker2@reddit

I used to like it. It was a handy warming convenience food when shopping, which felt healthier than eating burgers etc.

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genetic_nightmare@reddit

Their curry was elite, always got it with cheese. Elite food.

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RevolutionaryPace167@reddit

I loved those

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wildOldcheesecake@reddit

I honestly didn’t care for jacket potatoes most of the time. But whenever I saw spud u like, I absolutely had to have one. It was so cheap and filling too. A great shame it’s gone

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Boring-Rip-7709@reddit

Ooohhh. W. Egg mayonnaise and lots of it

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nunsreversereverse@reddit

Dirty bastard

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dasbudd@reddit

Clearly ahead of their time - they’d have been booming after this current ‘TikTok boom’

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mattjimf@reddit

It was Tasty Tattie up in Aberdeen. They did amazing thick shakes as well.

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Dimac99@reddit

I stopped ordering the bags of four from Tesco ages ago, but occasionally still risked a couple of loose ones. Last week's two were still a bit on the small side and kinda deformed too. I'm not saying they were the Quasimodos of the potato world, but they were definitely not ones any normal person would have picked in the shop themselves. Which was no doubt why the picker chose them.

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crochetprozac@reddit

conspiracy theory hat on

I have a sneaking suspicion that there is something seriously wrong with our UK crop growth - but we're just not being told about it.

The quality of veg (at least for me) has been really bad - smaller sizes, sometimes cabbages taste rubbery -even ovenchips and the like- I brought the mccain ones from Iceland and half the chips were blighted.

We're through the looking glass people!

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steak-and-kidney-pud@reddit

Sometimes, for a treat, I’ll have a baked potato.

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felldiver@reddit

Ask this guy

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

Haha, this is exactly what ours have been like when we got from Tesco. Me and my partner are always like wtf are these? I’m switching to looking for the loose ones! Now it’s 7am and I’m craving jacket potatoes with cheese

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Long-Fun2315@reddit

Get yourself to Lidl, got 6 the other day and they were massive!

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bix_box@reddit

Yes definitely need to go loose. All the bagged ones are tiny, while loose are always huge. At least at the Lidl I go to.

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OldChorleian@reddit

Haven't been in for a while, but Booth's used to do massive takeaway hot baked spuds with a variety of fillings. Very reasonably priced, too, for Booth's. (Spot the northerner.)

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I have never heard of booths before!

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OldChorleian@reddit

Northern England only high-end supermarket chain, comes up on this sub now and again.

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No_Priority_1839@reddit

Crepe a Crossiant in Glasgow years ago also did amazing huge baked potatoes. The coronation chicken was to die for.

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richyyoung@reddit

M&S have had some very good sized ones recently…

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Vanrocko31@reddit

I've noticed how much of a powdery texture they are now aswell. It's a real luck of the draw to get a good interior aswell

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smellyfeet25@reddit

or they can be dry

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tylersburden@reddit

Costco food court spuds are pretty banging.

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NortonBurns@reddit

I haven't checked in the last couple of weeks, but our local asda usually has them. Avoid the bags of 4, they're always smaller. There's usually a weigh your own, box of singles. We usually have to pick through to find a couple big enough to satisfy, but being aware fo the fact they always look twice as big in the kitchen as they did in the shop. We never go for the very largest.

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Appropriate-Divide64@reddit

Guessing it's different, cheaper brands of potatoes that can be grown all year around.

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PainExtension3272@reddit

Go to your local farm shop

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AndAnotherThingHere@reddit

Go to a farm shop

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Lady_of_Lomond@reddit

It has been a lousy growing season because of the long, cold, wet spring. The big taters just aren't available this year.

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Hydraenial@reddit

I find this really interesting and presumably an issue with large-scale agriculture. I have an allotment, and this has probably been the best potato year I've had, and I more or less grew in the same way with the same varieties. Guess it's down to large machinery and wet weather as opposed to the plants struggling with the conditions

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I thought it was a seasonal thing due to bad crops, but in all honestly it’s been a good few years since I’ve seen them about!

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lxgrf@reddit

They've been about, in previous years Morrisons did 4-packs of 'Baking Potatoes' that were properly chunky. Hopefully they will again next year.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I never go to Morrisons. I use riverford as an online farm shop so maybe I need to find a more local one as I haven’t seen them on there!

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GateComprehensive987@reddit

Honestly I have better luck just sorting through the loose potatoes for big ones than I do buying the baked potato packs.

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peach_clouds@reddit

That’s what we do too. For us Tesco is usually the better bet, as our Sainsbury’s spuds are sad little things and the Iceland veg is usually mouldy!

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2xtc@reddit

Most normal supermarkets still sell decent sized jacket spuds, maybe try buying in person?

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pajamakitten@reddit

Because climate change has meant several bad seasons in a row.

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cougieuk@reddit

Local farm shop has massive potatoes. They're around if you look.

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redqueensroses@reddit

I get all excited whenever I find a proper big potato in my bag of Tesco King Edwards.

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Lady_of_Lomond@reddit

Quite right too.

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Maximum_Scientist_85@reddit

It has for all sorts of veg - poor year on my allotment, same for my dad’s allotment, my uncle’s a farmer and he’s been saying the same. Very tough year, mostly down to the awful spring.

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Slow_Ball9510@reddit

What's taters precious?

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pinkdaisylemon@reddit

Boil em,mash em, put em in a stew!

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Phyllida_Poshtart@reddit

One of my local take aways has done jacket spuds & various fillings for years. He's now just stopped said the electric cost was too much for the amount he sold. He said he sold far more burgers and pizza than anything else on the menus so has had to trim the menu too. Shame because he's Greek and had a really varied menu not just the same generic crap

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InJaaaammmmm@reddit

I thought we had genetic engineering to solve all this. Where are the spuds the size of a human head?

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Immorals1@reddit

A few months ago the bigguns started coming in from catering suppliers, they're out there now 👀

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BastardsCryinInnit@reddit

M&S loose bit.

Don't buy the packs of four from anywhere.

You gotta go loose and feel for your fave.

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bettingthoughts@reddit

Aldi early in the day. They are hugggeee!

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Mediocre_Bridge_9787@reddit

It’s true. It’s very rare to find big spuds like we used to get for a good sized jacket spud.

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Salad_Fingers666@reddit

Scotty Brand ones in ASDA are big

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Aargh_a_ghost@reddit

They went the same way as Bramley apples, I remember them being much much bigger too, shrinkflation for you

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PM-me-your-cuppa-tea@reddit

I find the packets of jacket potato are awful in terms of size. But the 1.5kg+ bags or loose ones tend to have a few usable ones.

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Adamsoski@reddit

Yes, I can easily find loose potatoes that are large enough to probably be a bit bigger than I should really be eating in one meal (along with half a tin of beans and grated cheese obviously) in Sainsbury's

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Shoeaccount@reddit

Potatoes are actually low in calories and one of the best diet foods out there. It's the copious amounts of cheese and butter that will get you.

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BppnfvbanyOnxre@reddit

Little point in buying the supermarket bags of baking spuds as you point out they are usually slightly larger than normal. Did around the loose ones and you can often find some better ones. I tend as indicated to end up having a few, haven't see a proper giant spud for ages.

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a4991@reddit

Farm shops are far better than supermarkets when it comes to a proper jacket potato!

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find_me_withabook@reddit

I always get mine from the greengrocer exa tly because of this reason!

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Pebbley@reddit

Usually i find the largest ones in Sainsbury's followed by Morrissons. Asda's always appear on the smaller side, the other week in Waitrose of all places the quality of the JP wasn't good.

I love large potatoes x

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Next-Project-1450@reddit

I buy mine from Makro. They're (usually) big ones (though it can vary a bit).

But you'd like these:

Buy Trent Vally Extra Large Fresh Jacket Potatoes (Approx 30)-1x15kg - Order Online From JJ Foodservice

Typically 0.5kg each.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

Thanks! I haven’t been to Makro before but go to Costco, maybe they will have something similar.

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Lessarocks@reddit

I order my groceries from Tesco. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve ordered loose baking potatoes and the ones that arrive are three times what I would normally eat. So I’d try there - but the loose ones, not the pre packed ones which are always fairly small.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I’ve been going for the ones in packets of 4, need to check out the loose ones!

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grockle90@reddit

Local fruit and veg stall at the market usually has them, along with oranges the size of large grapefruit (they are actually oranges!) and onions easily 4x the size of supermarket varieties.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I recently moved house, definitely need to find my closest farm shop or greengrocer.

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Silvagadron@reddit

M&S and Waitrose are more likely to sell fruit and vegetables that have been allowed to grow for longer before harvesting. It’s ridiculous how small everything is in some supermarkets because the farmers have to hurry their harvest to meet demand.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

Sad isn’t it! I regularly shop in both but usually I got for the ones in packets of 4, based on this thread going to try looking at the loose ones instead!

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86for86@reddit

Climate change.

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pangolin_howls@reddit

Lidl do, they sell them loose.

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Jumpy_Imagination208@reddit

Your local farm shop or green grocers should have them.

I’ve picked up huge potatoes in the supermarket too.

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Coanda2013@reddit

The potato stall I go to is really skilled at splicing two smaller potatoes and making it seem like one massive spud

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Sorchya@reddit

Find somewhere with loose potatoes

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No_Preference9093@reddit

I’ve got some giant ones in M&S recently.

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CinnamonBlue@reddit

Last ones I got from there were big but green.

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

Oh thanks! I need to keep an eye out

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a_government_man@reddit

yeh I was gonna say, m&s is the way to go if you want big ones. with cost of living crisis they're not even that much more expensive, especially if you consider that they're proper jackets and not the measly taters sainsburys does

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notmyrealname19@reddit (OP)

I went in M&S every week until recently since we moved and it’s a bit further. Definitely heading there over the weekend!

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S4FFYR@reddit

I just bought some giants from Aldi yesterday. Pretty much all of their loose ones were huge.

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vad2004@reddit

Ha!! I can answer this one!

I work in hospitality... And every week I hey a newsletter/round up of the industry

6 months ago we all got a warning that the next 2 years potatoes would get significantly smaller! Mainly due to supermarkets demanding summer and early crops to be harvested earlier resulting in smaller "baby " potatoes. Once they were harvested, new crops were hit with bad weather resulting in no "mature " crops this tear..

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rtrs_bastiat@reddit

Go to the market instead. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head

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BrightonBaby@reddit

My local aldi always has massive potatoes!

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Azuras-Becky@reddit

Today I got my first bag of King Edwards since before summer, and there were only two bags left. I'm assuming the weather has ruined some harvests this year.

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PidginPigeonHole@reddit

Cyprus potatoes are great for making baked potatoes.. huge!

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WDeranged@reddit

They appear now and again, I got some monstrous ones from Morrisons this year.

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1968Bladerunner@reddit

They're a staple for me, and if the top tray of loose baking potatoes in Tesco doesn't have any decent specimens, I lift that tray up & there's often a second full tray waiting underneath.

Rarely can't find a couple of good-sized taters.

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FourLovelyTrees@reddit

I got some big ones recently in Sainsbury's in NI.

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elgrn1@reddit

I had a delivery from Tesco on Monday and all of the potatoes were on the larger size. One is almost the length of my face!!

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tentaphane@reddit

Tesco always seem to have some boulder wise ones near me - loose rather than packaged

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elgrn1@reddit

Yes, mine were loose.

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JBEqualizer@reddit

I was in my local Lidl the other week, and their loose jacket tatties were fucking huge.

I've also found some nice big ones in Tesco. They also had some quite large potatoes, too.

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OverthinkUnderwhelm@reddit

I buy loose ones from Lidl and they often have big ones there, but the packaged ones are always small.

If you dont have a supermarket thats nearby that sells loose ones, go to a greengrocer.

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