Yesterday in Kroger (a supermarket for you non-Americans) I saw a bunch of cans of potato salad. Why would someone buy canned potato salad? - eviltoast

Even if you don’t want to make it, I’ve never been in a supermarket that doesn’t offer a fresher option. I’ve even been in gas stations that offer what they at least claim is fresh potato salad.

Maybe if you really, really wanted potato salad and you were in a food desert but the corner 7-11 has canned potato salad you might buy it, but I’ve never seen this before in my life.

I don’t get it.

  • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    I just went sailing for a few days. On the small sailboat, we don’t have a fridge onboard. Stuff like this can be stored in room temperature, so I can definitely see the appeal for it.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’ve actually tried this brand before and it’s not bad! It’s a much different type of potato salad than the fresh kind they sell in the deli aisle. I don’t think they’re meant to be direct competition for each other

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      You mean it doesn’t taste like German potato salad? Because then it’s not as advertised.

      Also, if the potatoes are still firm in that can and not near-blended potato soup mush, they are using some weird-ass chemicals you probably don’t want in your body.

      • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Where I live the stuff in the deli aisle is all mayo based potato salad regardless of what type it’s supposed to be. The stuff I had from the can has no mayo and is vinegar based and the potatoes are more firm. I have no idea which one would be considered more “authentic” as far as what “German potato salad” is supposed to be.

        As far as chemicals that may be in the canned stuff, I honestly didn’t check and I don’t eat potato salad often enough for it to be a real concern to me personally.

        If it seems that reprehensible to you then maybe just don’t buy it? The fact that the store here keeps restocking it means someone must think it’s good enough to keep buying it lol

        • WastedJobe@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Mayo vs vinegar is kind of an actual debate in germany. The civilised side and the vinegar people are mostly blissfully unaware of each other until they develop righteous hatred for the other salad as soon as they learn of it. I heard the vinegar version is eaten warm, which sounds even worse. I would say both are authentic, but vinegar potato salad is authentically horrible.
          Storebought potato salad will also at best get people talking behind your back in germany, no matter which kind.

          • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            The civilised side and the vinegar people

            I love how clearly this second sentence displays which of the two sides you are.

          • De_Narm@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I’ve lived in both regions and both versions are strictly inferior to a potatoe salad based on mustard (+ oil and broth). The vinegar version uses a bit of mustard, but I’m speaking of mustard being the main ingredient. Naturally, I’m hated by both sides.

            • WastedJobe@feddit.org
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              4 months ago

              Naturally, I’m hated by both sides.

              As you should be. Though a bit of mustard is also good in the mayo version.

          • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            This is the first I’ve heard of the Great German Potato Salad debate lol I will have to look into this further 🧐

            • flauschtier@feddit.org
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              4 months ago

              It’s a thing. Legend has it there are some humans who like both, but it may be propaganda from the potato-industry ;)

              • Knuschberkeks@feddit.de
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                4 months ago

                I like both. Probably because I grew up with one grandma making the vinegar based type and one grandma making the mayo based type.

                • flauschtier@feddit.org
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                  4 months ago

                  I like them both too. My grandma made the vinegar verity and a friend of the family got a recipe from her grandma with mayo.

          • ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place
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            4 months ago

            This sounds so much like Spanish potato omelette. There’s the civilised side and the side that add onions to the omelette. And you don’t want to bring the topic to any peaceful conversation.

          • ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.de
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            4 months ago

            Because you use broth, fresh beef broth (or a hearty vegetable one) and vinegar just as a spice. The South is looking very critical at the rest of Germany with their weird abominations they call potato salad ರ⁠_⁠ರ

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Being canned it doesn’t require any “weird chemicals”. Op should learn basic chemistry-canning is a preservation process that requires no “weird chemicals”, unless salt is considered a “weird chemical”.

          • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            I think he’s saying that if the potatoes are both firm and canned, it’s because of some crazy chemicals. Not just canned goods = chemicals.

            Why he thinks you can’t can firm potatoes without chemicals? I have no clue.

        • Blemgo@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Both are authentic, with the vinegar variant being the Bavarian/Swabian variant. Not sure where the mayo variant came from however.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          The fact that the store here keeps restocking it means someone must think it’s good enough to keep buying it lol

          I agree. I just don’t know who that someone is when they can buy it fresh in the deli in the same store. But then some people obviously prefer Treet to Spam.

          • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I guess people who don’t like mayo? Or maybe people who grew up eating that style of potato salad? Maybe just doomsday preppers who want to stock up their shelters?

            I live in the deep south and the deli aisles here sell like 3 or 4 different styles of fresh potato salad but all of them are like 50% mayo and sometimes I just want something different lol

          • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            I, for one, am not a fan of “proper” potato salad because I dislike mayo.

            I’ve never had this stuff, but it sounds much more interesting to me.

            • ChaosCoati@midwest.social
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              4 months ago

              My grandma always makes both kinds for family gatherings (the mayo kind and the vinegar kind, vinegar being what she calls German potato salad). The way she makes it, the “sauce” part that coats the potatoes is bacon fat, vinegar and a little sugar.

              • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                Then I guess we’re talking about at least… three(?) unrelated types of food that are called potato salad.

      • BillDaCatt@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Fun fact: a small amount of vinegar in the cooking water helps to keep potatoes from getting mushy.

      • shutz@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        You assume there’s lots of chemicals, but did you check? The process of canning food doesn’t necessarily require a lot of chemicals: a lot of canned food is cooked in the can, after it’s sealed, which kills most of the microbes that might spoil the food and make you sick. And because it’s sealed, no microbes can get in, either.

  • Rolando@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I have a very elderly relative. If you can only eat food that is not too firm, and you want easy-to-prepare stuff that you can keep on the shelf, and your tastes are kind of old fashioned, this sounds great.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      I could definitely see something like that, although I think you’d probably get something that tasted better with a blended potato soup and there’s a bunch of canned varieties. I suppose if someone like that is jonesing for some potato salad (I wouldn’t blame them, potato salad is great), this is the best way to give it to them.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Portability and stability. Same as any canned good.

    Hell, some things are better canned because once the process is done, it’s essentially exactly where you want it and stays there. Cranberry jelly, tomatoes, pineapple for deserts (seriously, it can be much better than fresh for some applications), peaches for some uses, even corn can be better at some things because it’s canned. There’s others, but it would get silly.

    Now, I tend to agree that this isn’t something I would stock up on, what with fresh being relatively easy to get if I was unable to make my own. But, if I lived by myself? If it was decent, it might be a better choice just because it’s a smaller batch size. Less chance of wasting resource.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Canned goods are great, they last, keep the nutritional values, packaging can be recycled, etc

    The ‘they last’ means also less trips to the store, and less logistics is good for everyone and everything.

    Unless canned food is acidic, then the cans are layered in plastics & are basically plastic bottles with extra steps.

    Perhaps there is even an argument to be made how a large scale industrial processing can be (which doesn’t man is, but in proper countries it should be) much better, not only precise, but clean, with in some cases inherently far better ingredient quality (at least because of timing the ingredients), and more efficient too. It just takes less to implement an extra precaution or control in such an environment vs a big kitchen (or just someone mixing the ingredients at the store).

    Often canned goods use no or at least much less preservatives compared to ‘fresh’ counterparts, simply bcs they just aren’t needed (and either way it’s cheaper to perfect the mechanical preservation processes than adding extra stuff in).

    Also I really wanna open that can now :).

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Yes, I was saying that it seems (imho) a good food to can and have stock at home.
        People live different lives, or perhaps even have cooking or mobility limitations.
        Or for situations like sailing of the grid where you can’t reasonably store potatoes.

        I presume potato poisoning from badly made cans isn’t a thing for at least a century … If that’s not the case, then I’ll store my potatoes as vodka (I know, I know, most vodka isn’t potato vodka).

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      If society collapses and all we have left to eat is canned potato salad, I’m leaving the fallout shelter.

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        4 months ago

        It may not be that bad, and it’s probably just as healthy as all the other junk we eat. The only way to tell is if you… try it.

        But I probably have no right to comment on this. I just ate dry ramen a few minutes ago.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          Dry ramen is a whole thing. I can see the appeal of it as a weird form of crunchy snack, But you have stuff like this:

          And I admit, I really don’t get it.

          • Willy@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            I see you just trashing all kinds of tasty food here and then I realized who you are. lol. Makes sense now. Hope your doing better.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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              4 months ago

              Haha, sadly still not eating, but I can still appreciate (or not appreciate) the concepts.

              Tasty food to me is often something from India or China… really almost anywhere in Asia. But dry ramen isn’t really a thing in Japan, is it?

          • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Wait, people eat uncooked ramen noodles? That sounds vile, even without it being a ludicrous replacement for bread on a sandwich.

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’d only leave the Vault if I can become a Knight in the Brotherhood of Steel.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          Bad news: you get to be one of the Khans.

          (Fallout stopped with 2. I will fight you if you say otherwise.)

          • teft@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I’ve only played 4 and watched the show. I really liked Maximus and Paladin Danse. Except when Danse is being racist against Strong.

      • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        so, good news, we have enough canned potato salad for the next year. Um, I’m going to check to radiation levels outside. Don’t you want a Geiger counter? Naw, I’m good

  • Snassek@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I would assume for increased shelf life. This is German style potato salad and I have seen the cans in stores for at least 30 years.

  • BlueLineBae@midwest.social
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    4 months ago

    First of all … ew. I don’t know who this is for honestly. Maybe it’s one of those things that was used during war times that’s now sold in stores because why not? Second, we have lots of Krogers in the US and they are currently trying to merge with Albertsons which would essentially create a monopoly on grocery stores. Let’s all hope that doesn’t go through.

  • Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    A couple friends and I would get together for drinks, we all love to cook, one topic that frequently came up was ‘stuff you hated as a kid’. Then we would meet the next week and present a good version of that dish. German potato salad was the only thing no one could make edible, it just sucks as a dish.

    So Kroger decided to make it worse I guess?

    • deranger@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      German potato salad is good, though. I’ve never had it inedible. Nothing mind blowing, but it’s fine as a side.

      Skill issue?

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        Potato salad (European) is perfect along whatever you’ve put on the grill.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    They might be using it as a base for something else, like breakfast hash browns.

    Canned potatoes take on a flavor I don’t like, but there’s no denying the convenience of having shelf-stable cooked potatoes ready to eat or cook with. I keep canned tomatoes in the pantry for a similar reason. I prefer fresh, but if it’s going into sauce or stew, canned is a time saver.