With Thanksgiving around the corner, home chefs across the country are gearing up to create some amazing food. While Thanksgiving in 2020 might look a little different from the holiday in years past, that doesn’t mean we still can’t enjoy some great thanksgiving mashed potatoes.
In our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes, we’ll cover some tips and tricks for getting the fluffy mash right and share a few recipes from master chefs.
Whether you’ve been making mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving since you were as tall as the kitchen counter or this is your first year, it can be helpful to take a step back and ask, what are mashed potatoes?
Think of mashed potatoes as being made of three main components: boiled potatoes, ingredients added for texture, and ingredients added for flavor. Of course, ingredients overlap in these categories, but the general idea is that you want to achieve the correct texture and flavor.
Now, everyone can have a different idea of what a “correct” mashed potato texture is. But the texture should neither be too gummy or too runny. Similarly, the right flavor is subjective, but butter, garlic, white pepper, and cream are popular. Let’s look at a few tips for making the best mashed potatoes.
Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes are both great options. Yukon Golds, also called yellow potatoes, have a medium level of starch that allows them to be creamy and delicious, as well as easy to work with. Russet potatoes have a bit more starch so they tend to be lighter and fluffier when mashed. You can mix these two varieties for a great all-around mash.
Gummy potatoes are the worst, and there are a number of ways to end up with them, unfortunately. Make sure you’ve started with Yukon Gold or Russet potatoes, first. Then, cut them into chunks of uniform size so they can cook evenly. Chunks should be one to two inches, and Russet potatoes should be peeled.
Start with cold water on the stove, not hot, to ensure even cooking. Boil for 20 minutes. After cooking and draining, return them to the pot to let the remaining moisture cook off.
Use a hand masher, food mill, or ricer to mash the potatoes, not a blender or food processor. The food processor can break down the starch and turn it into a block of chewing gum. Also, don’t over-mix, since that can also make the potatoes gum up.
Mash until it’s just right, and when you add ingredients after that, fold them in with a spatula. Speaking of ingredients, try to warm them up to the temperature of the potatoes before you add them, as well.
You can make dairy-based mashed potatoes up to two days in advance. The basic idea is to mash the potatoes, add cream, and just a little butter and salt. Then, you can keep it in the fridge and reheat it two days later, adding the remaining butter at that time.
Experts weigh in on both sides of this issue. To some, leaving the skin on during boiling is ideal because it allows more of the nutrients to be absorbed into the mash later on. The boiled skin comes off easy, too, so you don’t have to have it in the mashed potatoes if you don’t want to. But let’s face it, you probably aren’t eating buttery Thanksgiving potatoes for the health benefits.
On the other hand, peeling before you boil makes sense, too. You don’t have to wait for boiled potatoes to cool in order to peel them, and peeling beforehand ensures your mashed potatoes will be as smooth as possible. At the end of the day, it’s really up to you.
Learning how to make the best mashed potatoes takes practice. So, let’s take a look at how a few master chefs make mashed potatoes. Don’t worry, you don’t need a culinary degree to follow these simple steps. But if you don’t cook your potatoes properly, Gordon Ramsay may call you to say, “It’s raw!”
If you’re at all unsure about what you’re doing in the kitchen, Alton Brown is the one to consult. Alton Brown’s recipe is based on his exacting food science and leaves nothing to chance. Here are your ingredients:
And here’s what to do:
If you’re looking to spice things up a bit, take a chance on Gordon Ramsay’s decadent mashed potatoes recipe. It comes with three variations so to make mustard mash, truffle mash, or garlic and herb mash as well. Here are your ingredients:
For mustard mash, you’ll need:
Truffle mash requires:
And garlic and herb mash requires:
Here are the steps for Gordon’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe:
How does Jamie Oliver make mashed potatoes? You’re about to find out. The popular English chef uses just a few ingredients in his mashed potatoes recipe:
Maris Piper potatoes are a popular white potato in England, but Yukon Golds or Russets will work for this recipe as well. Here’s what to do:
It’s not rocket science, but it does take some work to get creamy mashed potatoes to come out perfectly. We hope these different mashed potato recipes can give you some inspiration for the holidays.
Technically, Yukon Gold potatoes are a variety of yellow potatoes, but for the purposes of mashed potatoes, they can be used interchangeably. Recipes and food blogs often use the terms interchangeably, as well.
You don’t have to. The reason people do this is to remove amylose, which is what makes potatoes gluey. However, to get any benefits, you’d have to dice your potatoes into small cubes and let them soak for several hours.
Instead, put your chopped potatoes on to boil. Halfway through, strain them and rinse the potatoes in cold water. This will remove much more amylose than soaking before boiling does, and it will contribute to fluffy potatoes.
You can use starchy potato water instead of milk, or you can use a milk substitute like oat milk. Just make sure the milk substitute is unsweetened. You could also use dairy-free butter, vegetable stock, or chicken stock.
Sweet potatoes and purple potatoes are generally considered the healthiest since they both have many nutrients because of their bright colors. Yukon Gold potatoes are also healthy since they have yellow pigmentation.
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