Fresh, not frozen: a reader weighs in on funeral potatoes

Barb Beck of Colbert, just north of Spokane, loves funeral potatoes so much, she said, “I’ll even eat them cold.”

She last made the dish for Easter dinner. Her granddaughter went back for seconds.

Beck grew up in Utah, but never heard the term “funeral potatoes” until a few years ago - “after living in Spokane for many, many years.”

She got the recipe from her sister and makes them “quite often.” They are, she said, “especially good at Easter with ham.”

But, Beck would “never, never” dream of using frozen hash browns. In all caps, she emailed, “YOU USE REAL COOKED POTATOES. It makes all the difference in the world. After you have layered the potatoes and cheese, you pour heavy cream – unwhipped – over them … NEVER WATER.”

She’s skeptical of Walmart’s frozen pouch of funeral potatoes, ads for which have been causing quite a stir on the Internet lately.

And, “BTW,” she wrote, “I can make a lot of potatoes for $10 that Wal-Mart is selling them for.”