Do You Eat Mashed Potatoes?

I didn’t grow up eating mashed potatoes, and when I tell people that my family has never had mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving they are always shocked. I think ours may be the only family in the USA that will not be eating mashed potatoes two weeks from today. I wouldn’t say we never ate them, but it wasn’t part of our rotation of regular sides. It’s possible we didn’t have them because we didn’t have gravy, or maybe we didn’t have gravy because we didn’t have mashed potatoes. This could be a chicken—egg situation. To be clear we did have gravy on Thanksgiving, but that was pretty much it.

This post however isn’t about my family, and our suspect Thanksgiving menu—believe me we manage fine without mashed potatoes. It is about your Thanksgiving which surely includes them. There are many ways to make mashed potatoes, but only a few ways to make the best mashed potatoes. If you are afraid of butter and cream you may as well stop reading here, or maybe make some other kind of potato, like oven roasted potatoes. If you’re committed to making memorable mashed potatoes, here are some rules to follow that will ensure your success:

1. Start with the right potatoes; I prefer russets, they have a high starch content and will yield a fluffy mashed potato. Boil them with their skins on, this will keep the potato from getting watery. For ten to twelve people make five pounds of potatoes. You can use Yukon gold, but for those are better for (s)mashed, skin on potatoes.
2. When the potatoes are cooked, if you’re going to put them through a ricer (which will give you the smoothest, fluffiest mashed potatoes ever) you don’t need to remove the skin, the ricer will do that for you. If you have a food mill that will work as well.
3. If you’re going to mash them with a masher, after draining the hot potatoes, make a few cuts in the skin to them to let the steam escape, and cool enough to handle them, then remove the skin; it should come off easily.
4. For each pound of potatoes use one stick of real, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, and 1/4 cup of cream heated gently (do not boil)
5. DO NOT OVER MIX, over mixing potatoes makes them gummy. Gently fold in the butter then add the cream slowly. You may not need all the cream, if you don’t use it all, save it because you may need to add it before you serve the potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper, but remember go easy on the seasoning because adding gravy will add salt and seasoning.
6. To hold mashed potatoes:
   1. Put them in your slow cooker on low, where they can rest for up to four hours, you may need to add a little more cream before you serve them
   2. Cover well and put them over a simmering double boiler, this will hold them for one hour
   3. For less than thirty minutes cover tightly and they should stay hot and fluffy

Next week is the last pre-Thanksgiving post, so if you’ve got any burning questions please send them my way and I’ll do my best to answer them. Meantime, look for a sale on butter and stock up, because you’ll be using lots of it from now though the New Year!