These Store-Bought Pre-Made Mashed Potatoes Flop In Taste And Texture

Mashed potatoes are a comforting side dish, but they also require prep work and elbow grease. So, if you don't have time for a homemade recipe, store-bought mashed potatoes abound. While instant mashed potatoes are easy enough to throw together, pre-made mashed potatoes are ready to eat right out of the package. We sampled and ranked 9 store-bought pre-made mashed potatoes on taste, texture, and ingredients. While there were great options, the last place ranking totally flopped in the taste and texture departments.

Surprisingly, the frozen food empire, Stouffer's, landed in last place with its everyday homestyle mashed potatoes. As one of the most popular brand names in the frozen food game, we had high hopes for these mashed potatoes, especially because many of Stouffer's fan-favorite frozen dinners come with a side of them. And, a glance at the ingredients was promising, featuring real potatoes, cream, skim milk, sour cream, and salt, among others. But, after heating these frozen, pre-made mashed potatoes up in the microwave, we were seriously let down by a lack of flavor and a paste-like texture. Perhaps the ice crystals accumulated in the freezer watered down the flavor and sabotaged the texture of these mashed potatoes, but they were anything but fluffy, rich, and creamy. Instead, they were a gummy mess with watery pools, not to mention woefully underseasoned despite having one of the highest sodium contents on our list of mashed potato brands.

We found disgruntled Stouffer's customers in Kroger's customer reviews of the brand's homestyle mashed potatoes. One customer wrote, "super easy to make just using the microwave but man do they need salt or some other added flavor." Another customer described their flavor as "cafeteria bland potatoes," stating, "I tried to save it by adding butter/salt/pepper but still [no one] ate it." The texture was as common a source of disappointment as the lack of flavor, with one customer complaining, "I felt like I was eating glue." Another customer was even less kind, denigrating presentation, taste, and texture by saying the mashed potatoes "were [grey] and gluey and had the look and smell of papier mache paste, and tasted no better."

A look at Stouffer's vast array of frozen side dishes reveals that homestyle mashed potatoes are just one of various pre-made mashed potatoes. So, if you're sticking with Stouffer's, we ranked the cheddar bacon potatoes as our favorite side dish. Sticking to conventional pre-made mashed potatoes? Hormel's homestyle mashed potatoes are the store-bought, pre-made mashed potatoes we'd definitely repurchase. They're as rich, fluffy, creamy, and easily mistakeable for scratch-made. Serve them with a pat of butter for the ultimate homemade touch. If you're stuck with a box of Stouffer's homestyle mashed potatoes, your best bet is to check out our list of mashed potato hacks for ideas on how to repurpose them.