"Crime against potatoes": Minnesotan's tater tot hotdish "hack" gets ridiculed

Good Question: How did hotdish come to be a Minnesota specialty?

MINNEAPOLIS -- When it comes to the Minnesota dinner table staple, the tater tot hotdish, simplicity reigns. You have your meat base, your vegetable blanket, your binding element of cream of something soup, and you have tater tots. (Cheese is optional.)

Notice that three of those four key ingredients leave room for flexibility. One does not.

One Reddit user in the Minnesota subreddit learned that the hard way when they shared a photo of their own "tater tot" hotdish that, instead of being topped with mini tater cylinders, swapped in an entirely different potato element.

"My submission as a Minnesota native, is this heresy? It provides perfect portions," Reddit user Int3g3r submitted.

The offending culinary presentation Reddit

As of Wednesday morning, there were already more than 400 comments -- and few of them radiated your usual brand of Minnesota nice.

"Take that abomination to Iowa," one said.

"Where the heck are the mods? Posts like this need an NSFW tag. Ridiculous," another chimed.

RELATED: How did hotdish come to be a Minnesota specialty?

Many ridiculed the attempt at using the larger hash brown patties as a guide for "perfect portions."

"Incorrect. The proper portion size in Minnesota is 9x13 inch. Serves 1," one comment read.

"In Minnesota means one last portion that is small enough to be a full portion but large enough to be divided in half many times and still leave evidence that nobody has taken the final portion. Back to the drawing board. Maybe you could serve this thing in Iowa or something," another Reddit user offered.

Most Reddit users suggested punishment, albeit of a light-hearted variety.

"We're not supposed to doxxx here but ffs, this is a crime against potatoes and hungry Minnesotans everywhere," a user suggested.

And, even further, some invoked the divine perfection of the tater tot element.

"If God didn't want us to line up our tots, then he wouldn't have the perfect amount in every single bag for a well ordered 13x9 pan," one user concluded.

From Reddit's upvote to a very Minnesota god's ears. Or, at least, Reddit user InvaderMer, who offered their own "real deal" version.

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