The Best Mashed Potatoes Recipe - WonkyWonderful (2024)

FAQs

How does Gordon Ramsay make the best mashed potatoes? ›

Gordon Ramsay's mashed potatoes are known for their richness and flavor. He typically adds butter, heavy cream, and sometimes crème fraîche to his mashed potatoes for a creamy and indulgent texture. Additionally, he often incorporates roasted garlic or chives for extra flavor.

Just a pinch of baking soda is all you need to create mashed potatoes as soft as clouds. When you add baking soda, it reacts with the heat of the dish and the acid in the milk or cream to create small air pockets throughout the mash. These air bubbles translate to light and airy bites. Yum!

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

"Potatoes are about 80% water, so you want to let that steam get away," Harvey said. The very best mashed potatoes start with a ricer, a relatively inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment that forces your cooked food through tiny holes.

Garlic – For savory depth of flavor. Unsalted butter – For richness and buttery flavor. Milk – It smooths the starchy potatoes into an incredibly creamy mash. Use whole milk for the creamiest results.

Playing With pH: Why You Should Add Baking Soda to Your Water. In my previous roast potato recipe, I recommended adding a splash of vinegar to the water for the initial boil. The idea is to control the breakdown of pectin, the cellular glue that holds vegetables together. Think of it as the mortar between bricks.

They just taste rich (almost impossibly so). They do, however, feel creamy, because egg yolks are also emulsifiers (and are, in fact, the ingredient in mayo that makes it an emulsifier). The yolk emulsifies water and fat to create a cohesive, velvety bite, while providing a little fat and body of its own.

Tips for the Best Mashed Potatoes

Start cooking the potatoes in cold water: This ensures that the potatoes cook evenly. Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the middles are still hard and crunchy.

Restaurants prepare the potatoes ahead by boiling and mashing just the potato, then just before serving, it is mixed into boiling cream (or milk or even broth or a combination thereof) to reheat it and make it nice and creamy.

How do you make Julia Child's mashed potatoes? ›

Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water for about 15 minutes until they're tender, then drain. Pass through a ricer and return to the pot. Add more butter, heavy cream, the garlic béchamel sauce, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir everything together and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.

You can use what you have on hand: Flour, cornstarch, or powdered milk are all solid options that are probably already in your pantry. Potato flour and potato starch would work as well. Stir in the thickening agent gradually, about a tablespoon at a time, until the potatoes have reached your desired consistency.

Drop a whole russet into the pot and by the time the outside has cooked through, the inside will still be raw. Larger potatoes should be cubed to ensure they cook evenly (peeled first if desired). Smaller potatoes tend to have thin skins and can be boiled whole, no peeling required.

Use More Butter

You already know to add butter to your mashed potatoes, but more is more. Just like a steak, you can top hot mashed potatoes with compound butters. Allow the butter to melt into delicious pools of rich flavor. Browned butter can also add nuttiness and a beautiful color to your spuds.

How Long to Boil Potatoes for Mashed Potatoes. Peeled and quartered potatoes should be perfectly boiled after about 15-20 minutes. If you leave your potatoes whole, it will take a bit longer.

Carefully add the potatoes to the hot tray along with the garlic and rosemary. Toss to coat in the fat and spread out in a single layer so they cook evenly. Roast for 40-45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to serve.

Adding egg yolks to a pot of mashed potatoes is an easy, dairy-free texture and taste upgrade that doesn't require any special techniques. The yolks harbor all the flavorful fats and emulsifying components and will thus effectively unify the fat and water in potatoes, translating to a smoother, uniformly creamy pot.

Sour cream adds a little bit of tangy flavor and a boost of richness to mashed potatoes. It's a fun change from the standard milk or cream and butter combo usually flavoring mashed taters. You can even try your hand at making homemade sour cream from heavy cream!