There's Bad News For Fans Of Arby's Potato Cakes
Arby's has confirmed that it will discontinue its potato cakes. The rumors of this emerged on Reddit two months ago when a worker simply posted the horrified text: "MY ARBY'S DOESNT SELL POTATO CAKES ANYMORE!!!!!?????!!!! PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISNT BECOMING PERMANENT." Others who worked at various Arby's restaurants explained that the brand would remove its loaded fries and potato cakes in favor of its new addition: crinkle fries. The problem was that potato cakes never sold in numbers large enough to warrant the effort of cooking them.
Yesterday, the company finally confirmed the truth of this to The Takeout, clarifying that the change will occur on June 1. In its statement, it teased fans with hope: "Although our Potato Cakes have been discontinued (for now), who's to say they're gone forever?" How much the brand meant this and how much this is an attempt to deflect dissatisfaction from a small but vocal fanbase has yet to be seen.
One response to the piece noted that Arby's had tried to remove its potato cakes before, once when it introduced curly fries in the '80s and once when it introduced non-curly fries in the '90s. Both times Arby's buckled to the resulting outrage. But if the number of people who order potato cakes has dropped precipitously between the '90s and now, Arby's should have no reason to back down.
You could make your own
Assuming Arby's will never ever return its potato cakes to its menus, the obvious alternative is to make them yourself.
Fortunately, recipes have been prepared. Recipes.net describes with 10 minutes of prep, 10 minutes of cooking, and 1 hour of chilling, you can have your delicious Arby's side without depending on the whims of its management. You need some mashed potatoes, either cold or leftover from a previous meal, flour, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, and olive oil.
With these, mix the eggs and mashed potatoes, blending them. Add flour with salt and pepper flecked. Form the resulting substance into cakes. Chill for an hour before throwing them onto a skillet (you need to chill them so that they keep their form.) Fry until both sides are a nice golden brown. Enjoy.
Using that recipe or Master Cook's or any number of other copycat recipes, you can prepare your own potato cakes if needed.