The internet is baffled by Walmart’s ‘funeral potatoes.’ Idahoans and Utahns laugh.

A Walmart advertising campaign has Twitter users scratchingtheir heads — and wondering if they should be watching their backs. The ad is for funeral potatoes, a moniker which has been called creepy, disturbing and threatening as people across the country try to suss out what, exactly, the dish is.

It’s no mystery to many of us in Idaho and Utah (and parts of the South and Midwest). Funeral potatoes is a cheesy potato casserole, made with hashbrowns or cubed potatoes combined with cheese, cream soup, sour cream and crushed corn flakes or potato chips. It earned the name after the dish was popularized by Mormon Relief Societies as an after-funeral meal staple.

Walmart’s ad featured an “easy to prepare” frozen version of the food from Salt Lake City-based Augason Farms, which calls the dish “potatoes to die for.” The ad appeared on Facebook (often alongside a campaign for earthworm jerky — yuck). Cue mass confusion.

Meanwhile, Idahoans and Utahns have been hard at work educating the internet about the cheesy, potato-y meal that made an appearance on many an Easter table.

The most important thing to note? Nothing beats homemade funeral potatoes, according to those familiar with the dish.

If you want to try your hand at funeral potatoes from scratch, recipes abound — including a 5-star rated version from FoodNetwork’s Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 1:10 PM with the headline "The internet is baffled by Walmart’s ‘funeral potatoes.’ Idahoans and Utahns laugh.."