AD tests supermarket endive mash pots and the results aren’t great

Algemeen Dagblad may have stopped its annual oliebollen and herring tests, but it was happy to make room in the newspaper for testing six different supermarket endive mash pots. At FavorFlav, we recently tested supermarket kale mash pots; at AD, four experts shared their verdict on the ready-made endive mash pots from six major supermarket chains.

And to get straight to the point: they were far from impressed. Samuel Levie of Brandt en Levie, cookbook author Karin Luiten (who gave us a great recipe for pink iced cakes), mash-pot specialist Werner Drent and potato specialist Michiel Meijering tasted the endive mash pots from various supermarkets, and not one received a score higher than 6.5. From there, things only got worse, although in the end they did not find the differences all that significant.

Not particularly good

The aforementioned 6.5 went to Albert Heijn’s ready-made endive mash pot. This one contained the most endive, and at least the meatball was crumbly, but Michiel Meijering found the potato too much in the background and, moreover, too firm. Things went downhill after that, with the following descending scores for Jumbo, Chef Select (Lidl), Plus, Daily Chef (including Hoogvliet and Dirk), and bringing up the rear, Aldi: 6, 5.5, 5.5, 5 and 4, respectively. The Aldi mash pot is, however, the only one with two stars from the Beter Leven quality mark; the other brands have just one.

You can find the precise verdicts in the AD, but generally speaking, it is fair to say that they were not enthusiastic.

No crunchy bite

According to Luiten, the time between preparation and eating is so long that it is difficult to keep the dish genuinely tasty. Moreover, the good thing about making endive mash pot at home is that you mix the endive in raw, giving the whole dish that lovely bite. That is not the case with these pre-cooked mash pots, which you also have to heat up.

When it has to be quick

Of course, it makes sense that you do not always have time to peel and boil a bag of potatoes and shape your own meatball or heat up a smoked sausage. But these mash pots probably will not make you happy either. Maybe just stop by the snack bar instead..?

Source + image in article: AD

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