Hey, dude! What's shakin'? Would you believe Betty Crocker? She's cooking up Potato Shakers - a potato seasoning mix for a new twist on the old spud. The mix comes in zesty Cheddar or Parmesan and herb flavors. The 3-ounce box retails for $1.33.
Don Russell (married, five children at home, ages 6-16): "This is not the best item to ever come out of Betty Crocker's kitchen. Potato Shakers' zesty cheese flavor was somewhat fun to try, but I seriously doubt we'd ever buy it again. We didn't find Potato Shakers very flavorful or much of a taste treat. The top ingredients are flour, salt and Cheddar cheese. We recommend you focus your grocery dollar on other items."Edyth Jensen (married, three children at home): "These are quite different and we enjoyed trying them. The Parmesan and herb has a mild flavor that enhances a `baked' potato. They are fairly simple to prepare, and cost is not outrageous. We will use them again."
Nihla Lake (married, two children at home): "We tried the Parmesan and herb spud seasoning. It was quick and easy to prepare and had a mild almost bland taste, except for being a little too salty. We'll probably skip buying this again."
Rich Firmage (married, three children, oldest 10 years old): "We were given the zesty Cheddar flavor, and they were really cheesy potatoes. They were easy and quick but not a big hit. The taste was OK but not great. My kids weren't too impressed either. But if you like a really cheesy potato, you'll probably like these."
Bill Allred (single): "OK, let's get serious about this. What you have is a package of seasonings - Parmesan cheese and some herbs in the variety I sampled. What gives? Are we so unimaginative and lazy that we can't find our own herbs and our own variety of cheese and sprinkle it on some sliced-up baking potatoes? Admittedly it would be hard to find a few of the ingredients that Betty Crocker lists on the side of the box. I'm not sure that maltodextrin, disodium phosphate and partially hydrogenated soybean oil are generally available to the grocery shopping public. I guess we could add the 740 mg of sodium (salt) on our own if we wanted salty oven-baked potatoes. Might as well buy a bag of potato chips. This kind of product is not for me."
Conclusion: Our testers shook this new spud flavoring and out came, "bland, salty maltodextrin." Back to the drawing board, Betty.
The Deseret News testing panel independently tests products purchased by the Deseret News. Readers with suggestions for products to be tested should contact Karen Boren, The Today Section, Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.