Mashed potatoes are one of those dishes that are so simple to make that many tend to just wing it. Often people just add a bit of butter…then some milk…then a little more milk…than more butter. And the results are usually passable, but far from mashed potato nirvana — hot, fluffy, and creamy. Sometimes, the dish devolves into an inedible mess, bland and flavorless, or thin and watery, or worst, an elastic ball of gluey potato dough.

Avoiding the Dreaded Glue Ball

The reason why the glue ball appears is usually because of overmixing. A lot of recipes suggest using hand mixer to get a smooth consistency. Don’t do this! If you beat the potatoes, you might open the starch granules in the potatoes, and that’s what makes them gluey and sticky. To be on the safe side, don’t use any electric mixing equipment to make your potatoes. You’re more likely to run into this problem with high to medium starch potatoes.

Another tip that I follow is to make sure that the butter is melted and the milk warm before adding them to the potatoes. Add the butter to the potatoes first. The butter coats the starch and makes it less likely to gum up. Heating the milk helps keep the potatoes warm for longer. Since mashed potatoes tend to lose their nice consistency when they cool, keeping them warm goes a long way to preserving your potatoes.

Avoiding Lumpy Potatoes

To get a smooth consistency, just use a potato ricer or a food mill. These handy tools will break down the potatoes enough so that a quick stir with butter and milk will create a smooth dish.

Personally, I think chunky mashed potatoes have a lot of personality. If you prefer them chunky, just use a potato masher to mash the potatoes.

Avoiding Watery Potatoes

This one is pretty simple, but it’s easy to do when you’re busy on Thanksgiving day. Don’t overcook the potatoes. Keep a timer on them and test them every couple of minutes when they’re close to done. You should be able to slide a fork into them with very little resistance. Drain them promptly, and finish making the dish promptly while the potatoes are still hot.

Butter & Milk

For really nice creamy mashed potatoes, you’re probably going to use a lot more butter and milk than you think. I like about 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of liquid (milk or half-and-half) to 2 pounds of potatoes. The richness of whole milk or half-and-half really adds to the dish. Yes, it will clog your arteries, but that’s why you only go all-out a couple of times a year.

So I guess the lesson here is if you want great mashed potatoes, give them a little respect. Just because a dish isn’t complicated to make, doesn’t mean you should shortcut it to mediocrity.

Click here for tons of mashed potato recipes.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2005 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.