I’ve recently went to visit McCain. How they have made a business based on potatoes is really quite smart. I came away almost humbled.
I have travelled all over the world. But sometimes the ultimate fast food is as simple as a spud. Sometimes it’s the little things, the simple things – the taste of a nice, in-season baked jacket potato.
McCain’s frozen baked potatoes are an incredible product. In their research, they have been slow cooking the potatoes so you can get molecular changes. Potatoes are made of water, starch and other bits. And starch cells change their composition when they get to 97 -105°C – that’s why you get different textures in a baked potato or a steamed potato. Any potato however you cook it you will get a different profile because of how the starch reacts at that temperature. McCain have over the years have mastered this, adjusting it for different varieties of potatoes at different times of the year. You don’t appreciate the level of work of their development chefs and the people behind the scenes .
I didn’t realise how they source the potatoes and how they work with the farmers. It might be as simple as a baked potato – they have been working with local farms. They spend a lot of time finding the right variety of potato. The potatoes are all selected and graded. Then they are part cooked.
Yes – I can do my own jacket potato. But I can guarantee that the McCain potato is far superior than what I can possibly buy.
Their Simply Mash is a clever product, too – it makes wonderful mashed potato but it males a great stabilizing agent for a chocolate cake, fish cakes, croquettes. I can keep it in the freezer – no mess, no hassle, no peelings, no rubbish. Even a child can get it right.
