Perfect baked potatoes

custardy

savagehoutkop wrote: »

The worst I've seen is pre-cooked (without veggies or anything) rice. Although as the other posters have pointed out I suppose there is a market if the only cooking method available is a mirowave rather than a hob. But all that packaging going to waste... doesn't seem right.

I bought that pre cooked rice before when it was on offer
it was handy for a quick stir fry

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

withabix wrote: »

Our Panny combi microwave does an oven-quality jacket spud in about 12 minutes.

Spud in.
Press button.
Ding

I miss my combi microwave as I gave it to my daughter.
I only ever used it for baked jacket potatoes though and thought doing them in the oven would be the same.
They were'nt they were much nicer in the microwave :mad:.

custardy

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

I miss my combi microwave as I gave it to my daughter.
I only ever used it for baked jacket potatoes though and thought doing them in the oven would be the same.
They were'nt they were much nicer in the microwave :mad:.

I bake mine on a bed of salt
best way IMO

Idiophreak

Mayflower10cat wrote: »

How much are they and how cheap is a decent baking spud?

Conversely, how much does it cost to run a microwave for 5 minutes?
How much does it cost to run an oven for an hour and a half?

I'd guess it could cost you 30p more to cook a spud from scratch (depending on how you cook, size of potato, type of oven, etc etc etc)

ETA: not really justifying the things, just pointing out not everything's always black and white...

Molly41

Such disparaging remarks about a few baked potatoes.
I agree with Byatt - they are cost effective if you are the only person eating them and a whole bag of spuds would go to waste.

I would be interested how they prepare the potatoes though as I once baked and froze a whole bags worth and they were horrid when reheated. I ended up chucking them!

terra_ferma

jessbrown100 wrote: »

Oh we really like the frozen rice with the vegetables in them from Mr A, yes, we can cook rice when we want to but when we get in from work (at ridiculous o'clock) and still have our little man to feed and bath and the housework to do and the clothes and pack ups to get organised for tomorrow, it's a good standby. And as we normally make it with batch cooked and frozen curry or chili etc I really don't think that I'm betraying my 'home-cooking ethos' too much

I don't think I explained myself correctly, what I meant is that we can all be lazy at time (i.e. I AM lazy at times and use the bagged rice), but what worries me is that some people who have been brought up on packaged/processed stuff finding cooking rice too difficult.
It's not having choice that is wrong (although the rice I've used was really yuk) but the fact that this so-colled choice is in fact limiting choices available, particularly to younger people who don't know anything else.

I know lots of people are busy with work, kids, etc, and I was not criticising anyone for using convenience products when it suits them.
I'm VERY VERY far from being hard-core OS

duchy

I wouldn't buy them but I can see a market for them. I often slam jacket spuds in the oven whilst I'm working (I work from home on the phone so am desk tethered but use a scheduled break to slam them in) but I do wonder about the economics of baking spuds vs nuking them as although they taste much better the power cost must be much higher (although I have no idea how much and would be interested if anyone has the figures for 10 mins in a microwave vs 60 mins in a gas oven.)

jessbrown100

terra_ferma wrote: »

I don't think I explained myself correctly, what I meant is that we can all be lazy at time (i.e. I AM lazy at times and use the bagged rice), but what worries me is that some people who have been brought up on packaged/processed stuff finding cooking rice too difficult.
It's not having choice that is wrong (although the rice I've used was really yuk) but the fact that this so-colled choice is in fact limiting choices available, particularly to younger people who don't know anything else.

I know lots of people are busy with work, kids, etc, and I was not criticising anyone for using convenience products when it suits them.
I'm VERY VERY far from being hard-core OS

Don't worry Terra.....am just highly devoted to my 'easy rice' in the same way that I love the occasional oven chip meal :rotfl:
Completely agree with you, I think it's a real worry that we are producing generations of families that do not have the ability to cook basic, nutritious food (I am also appalled that my Hubby's neice was unable to tell the time on a 'proper' non-digital clock and didn't know who Winston Churchill was by the time she left primary school but that's a whole other rant :eek:). It would be enormously beneficial (imo) if the education system were able do more to prepare kids for 'real life' e.g cooking, budgeting, financial planning etc) but unfortunately other things have to take precedence, so in a lot of cases kids can only learn these vital things from parents and if their parents haven't got a clue..........

Anyhow, am getting off my soap box now before I embark on a full scale rant

ska_lover

OP,Maybe you have more time on your hands than people who work, or you have more energy than I do.

After a 12 hour shift, a meal like this is ideal.

If you are in a household where both adults are working long hours as these, there is still the packed lunches, washing, ironing, and shopping, housework etc to be done, not a lot of energy left for whipping up a fancy meal each night.

cooking-mama

Ive recently started baking potatoes in my halogen oven,they are realy nice oven baked in around 40mins..(I dont realy like microwave baked tatties,and i would never put on my main oven just to bake them either)..but i will try these new McCaine baked tatties,apparantly they taste very nice and on a par with oven baked ones,could be handy for my 2 teenage daughters who can cook/wont cook...or would more likely put the oven on then wander off into ipod/laptop land,and forget oven was on.!!!..ready prepared microwave tatties would be safer in that instance lol..I remember when oven chips were ridiculed,now they are almost "the norm",much healthier than deep fried ones anyway(tho i do make my own chips 99% of the time since buying an actifry).anyhow,dont knock it til youve tried i say,so im planning on trying...Altho in true Moneysaving style,only if i can find them somewhere at a reduced introductory price.;)