Canned Potatoes and Fresh.
Guest Article by “Ole Blue” April 24, 2022.

Hi All, this is Blue, the Old Man is too busy with his Gardening Stuff, so I took over the Computer for a bit to set-up a Sunday Food Comparison Challenge.

The idea is to compare Store-Bought Foods in different Brands and compare them to Fresh.
I wanted to see which are the “Better” Brands as far as Value and Taste than comparing them to Homegrown or Store Purchased Fresh and what it would be/cost to ‘Can’ our own.
So let’s get to it ok?

I know a LOT of folks out there purchase a certain Brand of Canned Food for many different reasons, But lets be honest, is the Super Brand Name any ‘better’ that the others? So let’s do some comparing of “Expensive” Brands and more ‘Frugal’ Brands. And maybe toss in some Fresh/Raw equivalent in the mix.

PS: sorry about the focus on some of the Photos, the old paw don’t fit the Camera so well but I’m learning HAHAHA

“Two popular brands of Canned Potatoes”

Here we have a good old Store Brand from Safeway (Signature) and the Very popular brand Del-Monte.
First of all, Price.
Signature Brand is $0.99 per 15 ounce can normal price
Del-Monte Brand was $1.49 for a 14.5 ounce can, on sale it is $1.00 remembering that is $0.49 more than the “normal” price. How is it they can sell it for 33% less on sale? Maybe they charge too much to begin with? Hummmmm Wonder if they do the same with my Dog Treats?????

“A look See”

Taking off the Lids (and boy-ohhhh-boy was that a job) I was surprised they both look fairly good, not all mush like I the old man has seen before.
Notice the Store Brand is a little darker/yellower. We both did a Taste of the “Water” was about the same, maybe the Store was slightly sweeter (would not want to drink the entire can full), other than that; so far so good.

Here I drained the ‘Water’ and weighed them, with a little help from “Him”.
Again notice the Store Brand is slightly darker and the pieces are a little smaller although still in whole “slices”.
I also (washed my paws first) and picked one piece of each and checked for “pliability”. The Store was defiantly softer and seemed a little moister even after draining for a good 5 minutes.
The weight was interesting, although about the same weight the Store Brand was 9.8 ounces and Del-Monte was right at 10 ounces. The surprising thing was that a total 1/3 of the purchased weight was Water. That seems like a LOT of water in a can of Potatoes to me, I can buy Water a LOT cheaper than that. Sort of feel like the Old Man got robbed; just like at the Gas Station now. Gerrrrrrr

“Into the Frying Pan”

Yes the Old Fart LOVE’s his Cast-Iron Cookware!!!! Yelp Yelp Yelp.
So here is a very good look-see at the size difference and color of the two samples (Store on the right).

So at this point I did a simply medium/low temp fry with a teaspoonful of Coconut Oil (Never use much Oil in Cast Iron), used the exact same Temp as I cooked the two samples and was very careful to try and not breakup the slices, easier said than done.

As a side note, I did transfer both samples to a larger pans so I could ‘work’ the Taters better without breaking them up, Old Fart don’t know how to do things right at times Snicker Snicker.

“Draining the Oil”

Wanted to get a good “Cooked” weight afterwards so I did a good 5 minute “Drain”. Actually there was very little that was absorbed into the Towels from either sample.
Ok you ready for this?
Store Brand cooked down to 3.2 ounces
Del-Monte cooked down to 3.3 ounces
About the same right? BUT!!!!!
Where the heck did all those Potatoes go from that 15 ounce can???
Really? REALLY? We got 3.3 ounces of table ready food from a 15 ounce can?!?!?! We got robbed for sure.
Also note the Del-Monte; while I was very careful not to bust up the Taters I was unsuccessful, so honestly the Larger Pieces were not that much of a help, maybe if ya were using them in another way?????

“Heart Attack Breakfast”

Yeah Yeah Yeah I know….. But OMG was it soooo Gooders (I always get about 1/2 the Breakfast he cooks) HAHAHA
So, what was my conclusion from this Old Dog in this little experiment?
I’m going to buy the Store Brand, I seriously could not tell the difference in taste from the two, If I can get basically the same food/meal from buying 33% less cost, guess what?
That my friend; is being “Frugal”.

“Store Bought”

The Old Man just loves Yukon Gold Potatoes, unfortunately not all stores carry them, but he got these “Gold” Potatoes, so what the heck, let’s give em a try.

So the next morning He decided to just cook up a “Scramble” with Taters in it (Again a Heart Attack Breakfast).
He got out 2 taters that weighed right at 14.7 ounces total; about the same as the each Can.
He cut them up into Diced Taters and fried them up in about the same amount of Coconut Oil.
Ya want to guess what the “Cooked” weight ended up at??? Go on, guess……
9.9 ounces that’s right, right at 3 times the cooked weight of the “Canned Stuff”.
Cost on the raw Taters = $4.99 for a 5 pound sack. So let’s say a buck a pound, as in the same cost for those cans, for THREE TIMES THE COOKED AMOUNT!!!!!

Ok, Ok, Ok someone out there is going to say “Well those other samples were canned and can store for a very long time”. Yes you are exactly correct.
BUT! How about canning your own? I have heard you can get 7 Quarts (16 pints) diced Taters from around 20 pounds of Taters. Do the math, yes there is a first time cost of the Jars, but they are free the dozens of “Next Time” you re-use those Jars.
Potatoes right now are $0.70 a pound for Yellow Potatoes at Sam’s Club AND in season Ya can get a 50 POUND sack of potatoes from most growers for around $10.00 a bag, can you say $0.20 a pound??????

Now that my Human Friends is being “Frugal”.

Thanks for Reading my first attempt at this. Ole Blue.
And yes I had my Human help me with the Frying and Weighing, but I did most of the Eating afterwards, hahaha. I need a Nap…..