So I made dinner tonight with the canned potatoes. One of our favorites - pan-fried potatoes with a fried egg and sour cream. They turned out great! Not even nearly as mushy as I thought - even though they were sort of disintegrating in the jar, they really were still pretty firm. Most of the disintegration was the peel separating from the flesh. I'll definitely go back and get more potatoes - they were really easy to can and they fried up really nicely in no time. The flavor was pretty good, though they were pretty bland yet salty at the same time. The recipe called for a teaspoon of salt per quart but I think I'll cut that in half the next time.I think I'll also experiment by putting some minced garlic in with the potatoes next time as well. If the salt could permeate the potatoes that well (some of them were quite salty) I bet adding garlic couldn't hurt. What I did as per the instruction was to put 1 tsp of salt in the bottom of the jar and then fill with potatoes, boiling water, and then the lid and seal and can. But, I wonder since just a few of them were quite saltier than the others if it might be better to add the salt later - I wonder if some of the salt stayed at the bottom of the jar trapped by those bottom potatoes, and then when I canned it, the salt permeated more into those bottom potatoes? I think more research is in order. ;)
In any case, it was a raving success! I think I would even consider them a "convenience food."
