Vile smelling spuds

The last two bags of ‘old’ potatoes I’ve had, contained some rotting ones. I’ve never really known this before. Is it weather related, I wonder?

RVKICR. Cereal box - a clever idea.

It is best to get potatoes (and carrots) out of the plastic bags as soon as possible. I find large cereal boxes with a layer of paper at the base keep them well, I clip the top shut with a clothes peg to keep out the light.

It’s the methyl chemicals they release that aren’t found in other vegetables.
I once ‘lost’ a turnip under the car seat, a few days later the smell was unbearable! They release Sulphur..

I was very unpopular recently when I returned a bag of potatoes to my local Waitrose, awful stink and all. The staff at Customer Services recoiled.

I did that because I had paid a premium for some or other special potato variety (and they were in a fancy paper bag), and when I opened the bag one was completely rotten.

The Waitrose is walking distance from my house so I could walk off my annoyance at the same time!

The plastic bags aren't good and also potatoes bruise & that can start it. Sometimes the young supermarket shelf-fillers don't seem to realise, & chuck them about a bit.
I do love having clean potatoes to cook with though - I used to buy a big bag of farm potatoes & had to spend an extra 5 minutes to get them clean & clean the mud out of the sink afterwards.

I try to take potatoes out of their plastic bag asap, dry them and put them in a potato bag. But every so often I forget to and end up with a rotten one which does, indeed, produce the most evil stench. It’s one of those smells that lingers in your nostrils. Rotten carrots come close, too.

Ugh yes, rotten potatoes they are stomach -turning.
I think of the potato famine in Ireland in 1860s when potatoes were the staple diet for the rural poor & the blight caused them to rot in the ground. No way to eat rotten potatoes even if there is nothing else.

I plant potatoes the have shoots ,(chitted?) and get loads more. A rotten spud reeks and the house smells even when culprits are gone.

Esmay

I find that potatoes keep well when covered with either brown paper or newspaper .

Yes mine do well in a Primark carrier. I tip them straight away from the sales bag

The trouble is that potatoes are washed now before being sold, and potatoes should be kept unwashed, with earth on them and in a cool, dry, dark place until you want to use them.

And of course selling vegetables in plastic bags just adds to the speed at which they start to rot.

However, OP, in my opinion, onions smell just as bad when they start rotting.

And yes, the smell is terrible, Babs03

I bought nectarines on Friday and was horrified to find them covered in tiny flies today in the bowl. Two had rotted a bit underneath yet they are still hard.

M and S and Waitrose quite often sell loose new potatoes, we don't eat many. I don't keep them in the fridge as I read that the sugar content increases if this is done.

They used to advise against storing potatoes in the fridge, so I bought a hessian potato bag but the potatoes sprouted quickly.

I think the advice has changed now anyway. I line the fridge drawer with J cloth material.
Those net bags are good, but often end up in the knitting bag instead, very useful for storing wool.

This has turned into a thread of how to keep potatoes rather than what makes them smell so dreadful, far worse than any other vegetable. While we’re on the subject of how to keep potatoes, I always put them in the fridge and haven’t had a bad one since.

A rotting potato is an awful smell. If I have to buy them from a supermarket I always get them out of the bag immediately. I like to store mine in the fridge as I find they stay fresher for longer. If I don't have enough room in the fridge they go into a hemp type bag in the coolest cupboard I can find.

I discoverd how bad they smell when I plunged my hand into a sack, and my fingers went into a rotting potato. I was almost sick as the stench was revolting and, as you can imagine, I did wonder what on earth I had put my hand in. Not nice.

Got them in my online shop from ASDA and have complained, got a ten pound voucher which is nice but won’t be buying spuds from them in future.
No local green grocers deliver near me but a kindly neighbour has promised to pick us up a few loose spuds when she is next at the greengrocers in town.

Yes, they do smell awful! I transfer mine to a paper bag for storage. I read the other day that if kept near onions they go off sooner. I do keep them in the same container in a dark cupboard, so will separate in future.

A rotten potato is the worst smell ever. 🤮

Simple, because if one is rotten the bacteria will be all over the probably plastic bag causing the smell. Try opening the bag on purchasing, enough to get your hand in, stick in a couple of sheets of kitchen paper to help absorb moisture and slow down deterioration.

I'm lucky to have a local greengrocer where I can buy my potatoes loose. I just buy what I need as there is only 2 of us. I also keep mine in an open tub in the drawer of my fridge.

If you Google it, it says it's fine to keep spuds in an ordinary domestic fridge. The risk of sugar or acrylamide formation is minimal. However you shouldn't wash them until you are going to use them.

We buy backs of 4kg from the farm shop, they keep for ages, stored in netting indoors.

It does sound as though they've been blighted. They shouldn't have been sold like that - take them back.
Its what happened in Ireland yonks ago that caused so many Irish to flee to America or face starvation. (Irish potato famine). Makes you think how devastating it must have been, and appreciate how lucky we are that we have money enough to cope.