Just to be clear...I'm no sort of couch potato and also actually slender.
That having been said, one of my favourite foods is french fries.
Mostly the preferred cooking method is via deep frying in ~50% coconut oil.
Getting fries became a bit problematic during our recent relocation and since I could get to walmart late at night for needed groceries I also picked up 2 big (5 lb.) sacks of frozen fries.
Next day I heated up the oil and cooked about a pound of 'em.
While waiting for them to be done I looked at the sack they came in, and oddly there was no mention of deep frying - just oven or 'air fryer' info.
While waiting I also noticed that the steaming phase of cooking never seemed to end - and by the time they started to get a bit crispy they also disintegrated alot.
We ate them when they cooled - and they just weren't very good eating.
Blaming my possible lack of attention, a couple of days later I cooked more, making sure to stay rigidly at attention the whole time - sadly only getting the same results.
My theory has become that in cheapening the product & raising profits a bit, those fries must have somehow been impregnated with excess water then oil dipped to keep them moist.
We finally finished them off having made loads of useless crumbs.
(Oven cooking them was even more disappointing, sadly.)
Next time shopping there I got a smaller (2 lb.) sack of tater tots - and did just oven cook them.
Not too shocking was that they steamed for a long time & when browned a bit & served - they too fell apart & made lots of crumby bits.
Suffice it to say that frozen tater stuff from walmart is now OFF our shopping list.
By way of comparison:
The 6 pound sacks of frozen fries from BJs do deep fry excellently well & only steam for a minute at 1st.
(They also cost less per pound.)
Our regular supermarket's frozen fries also cook much better than the walmart fries.
.
On a slightly related note:
Making my last trip to BJs saw me stocking up on their taters 'cuz I'm letting that membership expire.
Since it costs $55/year normally I've done this before & within a few weeks just rejoin using an online discount deal instead.
For anyone interested, Stacksocial has a great deal presently, here:
They also have good deals for Costco from time to time, but we live too far from Costco stores now.
Thanks for reading all that !!