................ horseradish.

pocketpicker

I throw in a bit of cream and garlic. It needs a little bit of cream on top of the regular milk to make it extra rich. oooooooh yahhhh.

If you have a pressure cooker, the potatoes will cook super soft in less than 45 minutes of cooking.

ironchef

I beg to differ on one point. I bake mine and they come ont as fan-freaking-tastic mashed taters. Sure, boiled potatoes have their place, not just in my mashed taters is all.

Damage

Boiling potatoes in salted water is essential for good flavor, make sure that water just covers already diced potatoes. Cook until water has evaporated & let stand on heat till potatoes are dry yet not burned. Add sweet butter, as much as U like, then add a bit of milk to waken the dryness. Then add a heaping tablespoon of sour cream & as many thin sliced scallions that look appealling & mash till smooth on very low heat.

Enjoy the best mashies U ever tasted.

PeterPumpkinEater

A potato ricer is the best first step for mashed potatoes, there will be no lumps. Once through the ricer, and then a quick mash up with my wavy masher to combine the butter, salt, and just a tablespoon or so of at least 2% milk. Preferably whole milk, but skip the milk entirely rather than use skim.

GeekLady

Mashing just takes longer with a fork, it doesn't make them taste better.

greatslack

Infusing the garlic into the cream. (I don't use any butter or milk, just warm/hot garlic heavy cream.) Also, LOTS of salt, both in the boiling water and in the cream.

CWW

Damage and Getjustin are correct; potatoes cooked in their skins are far more flavorful than those peeled prior to cooking.

You can boil potatoes in salted water, but after peeling, you should spread them out on a baking sheet and toss in the oven for a few minutes to evaporate some of the excess moisture (which makes the mashed potatoes too wet). Like Damage, I prefer baking my potatoes.

I prefer using a ricer: no lumps but good texture. A wire masher is good if you like lumpy mashed potatoes.

cv

The best thing you can do is not peel your potatoes and mash them with one of the thick bended wire mashers (as opposed to a ricer or mesh-looking one).

getjustin

I agree that mashed potatoes are definitely all about technique...

I start with cut, peeled russets in salted water. They will invariably be done way before something else in your meal is done, so once they are done, drain them and let the chunks sit, covered, in the pan until you are ready to mash them. They will stay hot for a long time like this, and the bonus effect is they will absorb any remaining surface water while sitting there. You know you're in good shape when they look a little dry when you take the lid off.

At this point I usually grab my ricer, but a flat masher works too. The most important thing once you have the nice pile of riced or partially mashed potatoes is hot melted butter FIRST. Don't waste the heat in the potatoes on cold butter. Fold in something like 2 Tbsp butter for every potato (oh, it's the holidays -- just do it).

After the butter, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt, then fold in HOT half-and-half -- I use about a half cup for every three medium russets. The reason for doing this in this order is the butter coats the starch granules first and keeps it from turning into glue. Taste and adjust the salt.

If you now have to take the mashed potatoes to Aunt Mildred's house, it's a good idea to add what looks like too much half-and-half as they will soak up quite a bit while sitting on that buffet table...

mschlock

Oh, Ironchef, CWW, and MSCHLOCK are absolutely correct in that half-and-half is a must in a delicious, creamy, mashed taters. Straight cream is tad rich, and even whole milk isn't all that great. I do however mix the butter and half and half together so it forms something of a super half and half...

I suppose if I take out the butter and go straight with cream, it'd be ok, but the extra fat from the butter or oils beats straight up cream.

Finally, for that extra gourmet touch, add in liberal amounts of Truffle oil (vs. butter or other fats). Your tastebuds will thank you, especially if you can get a decent sized bottle for $10-20. Couple that with your favorited dried mushroom reconstituted, and you got yourself a set of Mashed Taters that doesn't need stinking gravy!

Damage

I love to spice em up with a bit of nutmeg, really gives an extra kick. Adding well-cooked broccoli to the potatoes before mashing gave a bad looking but awesome tasting result.

alecamused

You have to use science. If you retrograde the starches by first heating to 160F for 30 minutes and then cooling to room temp this gelatinizes the cells. Once you do this you can cook and mash without getting a gluey mess. You can even let the mash cool and reheat without the normal issues.

pounce

Boil new potatoes in several garlic cloves, let soak overnight. Mash skin and all, add salt, pepper, butter, heavy whipping cream. Then jog 10 miles or fast for 2 days to maintain current weight.

shaley01

I add sour cream, garlic and shredded cheese into my mashed potatoes.

Kelebek

Amen!
@GeekLady:

ib_toddler

My two secrets: Use a hand held mixer instead of mashing them--just don't overdo it. Also, mix some sour cream in there. I will take the Pepsi challenge against the best mashed "poe-tots" out there.

MiddleGeek

The general thinking about boiling potatoes in water is that they absorb some of the water and it dilutes the flavor and messes with the texture. I don't know if this is true or not but purists tend to steam them in their skins and then peel them. The most flavorful part is supposed to be right under the skin and steaming them allows you to remove the least amount of potato along with the skin. All that being said, this method is far too troublesome for me and I peel and boil (except with Japanese sweet potatoes as they disintegrate in water).

Taste and food preferences are so highly subjective that I always take the articles/advice on how to make the "best ever" of any food with a grain of salt.

ShariC

"and who isn't planning to make this holiday staple?" -- My family has not had mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Not a single time, never.

massysett

Bake up 2 bulbs of garlic (tops cut off and drizzled with olive oil), sautee about a third of a finely diced onion in butter, handful of S&P and a little bit more butter and cream... add all that to a big bucket of boiled and drained small, new potatoes (leave skins on), and whip it all up with a hand mixer. If you're feeling skinny, add some cheeses (whatever you have around-- fresh grated fontina or parm/reggiano, maybe a couple slivers of gruyere or sharp cheddar) and a little more cream.

Now that's eatin'!

savvy999

GeekLady's right - a potato ricer (looks like a big garlic-press) is definitely the way to go. You can even boil your spuds in their skins, pop them through & it'll leave the skin in the ricer.

Mmmm... mashed potato....

Johnjoe0110

i use this hugh fearnley whittingstall recipe/method. it's the method and proportions that are important so alter the quantities to suit the amount of people you're feeding.

peel and chop (not too small or the potatoes become water logged) 750 g of potatoes. boil them till cooked.

drain and leave to stand so that excess water drains and steams off.

when they're nearly done heat 75 cl milk and 75 g butter in a large pan till the butter has melted and the liquid is hot but not boiling. getting it hot is important as your potatoes will have cooled whilst steaming off.

rice (using a potato ricer of course) or sieve your potatoes into the hot liquid and then beat the resulting mash for extra smooth creaminess.

a variation i like is to sweat finely chopped spring onion in the butter before adding the milk so that all of their flavour infuses into the hot liquid before making your mash.

djspleenbaby

I once had mashed potatoes with orange marmalade served with duck. That was plain fantastic.

Also can anyone reccommend this technique for peeling boiled potatoes:
[www.youtube.com]

furrowed

Use chicken broth instead of milk; it really brings out the flavor.

ShezCrafti

Bah... linked to the SITE and not the recipe.

MercuryPDX

For easy Garlic mashed potatoes, just add in a package of Boursin. You can usually find it with the fancy cheeses in the deli section.

MercuryPDX

My mama taught me that sour cream was an essential addition -- not just for the taste and texture it imparts, but also because it keeps the potatoes moist and tasty when you reheat them later (we're big leftovers people in my family). Otherwise the potatoes end up kind of dry and lumpy when you serve them as leftovers. The sour cream prevents that.

paperandglue

Ooh, great suggestions, everyone! I'm salivating just reading all of these recipes. I will definitely have to try them! (Though it may take me a few years to get through... As much as I like mashed potatoes, I try not to eat them too often. Barry Sears and his stupid Zone....[grumble grumble])

KMT

The bit where they say it doesn't matter if you start in cold water or a rolling boil is not true. You should always start with cold water for two reasons. The cold water will leech out some of the starch (if you leave them in cold water over night in the cooler the water will become very starchy, this is ideal). The second reason is if you start with hot water, the outside will be cooked before the inside which means the outside will be overcooked when the inside is just right. That is how the outside of potatoes get that fuzzy look to them: being overcooked. The potatoes will become "glutinous" (starchy, there is not gluten in potatoes) and will be unpalatable.

Also, salted water does boil faster/hotter technically, but the salt is just for flavor. Save yourself a step and don't add any salt to the water and salt them when you mash them. It takes an obscene amount of salt to make water boil faster and hotter than a couple degrees farenheit. The principle behind it is that salt water is denser and thus conducts heat better than unsalted water.

I have a culinary degree, so I know a bit about mashing a potato :) In the words of Alton Brown: "If I can understand the egg, I can scramble it better."

LemonButt

I usually like to add clarified butter (like the Parisian chefs call it in France, in India it's ghee) to the potatoes. Also, a dash a fresh black pepper, plus some fresh basil leaves all around, and I squeeze a small lemon on top of everything. Voila.

Oh, and, Adam, how did you guess we just bought potatoes for Thanksgiving? :)

SamVed

My wife's family has mashed potatoes almost every Sunday, and my mother-in-law has it down to a science.

Here's what she does:

1. Peel and cut potatoes. (She always gets whatever is cheapest, and often flies to Idaho to get them...because she can fly Delta for free so this is more practical than it sounds).
2. Cook in pressure cooker for like 20-30 minutes (can't remember exact time, but it takes less time than boiling)
3. Put them in the Bosch (OMG best kitchen electric EVAR) mixer with the mixing attachment, add one can of condensed milk, butter and salt to taste. Whip it.
4. Serve

When we go over for dinner, she lets me play with different flavors, and sometimes my sister-in-law makes rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes which absolutely rock (but her brothers hate them).

Also, my father-in-law is German so we always leave some of the cooked taters unmashed for his favorite way to eat them: Saltz Kartoffel (I find that waxy potatoes are much better for this dish, but don't make a huge difference for mashed)

*The Bosch is awesome, but don't whip them too long or they will be more like pureed potatoes, which suck, in my opinion.

ubernym