Cook the Book: Mashed Potatoes, Finally Revealed
"I have never seen smoother potatoes."
Homemade mashed potatoes can be great, but oftentimes lumpy, dry, and underseasoned—or even worse, mealy. Then there are restaurant mashed potatoes. Those ethereal white mounds of creamy potatoey deliciousness are perfectly salted, without a lump in sight.
So, what are the secrets to amazing restaurant quality mashed potatoes? Mark Peel, author of New Classic Family Dinners has graciously shared the secrets of these lumpless wonders in his new book.
They involve, as you might have suspected, a very healthy amount of butter and cream, which helps the texture and flavor, but the real creaminess comes from the technique.
Until I tried this recipe, I always peeled and boiled my potatoes—my first mistake. Peel steams his, which prevents the potatoes from becoming water-logged and in turn, slimy and sticky.
I used a rice cooker to steam the potatoes and garlic and it worked like a charm. The next step is to pass the potatoes and garlic through a food mill or ricer, which will keep them light, airy, and lump-free. Then the cream and butter gets added, and another pass through the stainer, which elevates the spuds from simple mashed potatoes to pommes purée.
I have never seen smoother potatoes. Truthfully, you could stop right there. They taste pretty great without even adding the remaining 3/4 cup of butter, but why not? That extra butter certainly didn't hurt the flavor and lent the faintest and most appealing hint of buttery yellow. While eating these, I couldn't help but think that this is one recipe that Paula Deen and Joël Robuchon could both agree on.
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of New Classic Family Dinners to give away this week. Enter to win here »
Mashed Potatoes, Finally Revealed
- makes 4 to 6 servings -
Adapted from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel.
Ingredients
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks (1 3/4 pounds peeled)
4 fat garlic cloves, cut in half, green shoots removed
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Procedure
1. Place the potatoes and garlic in a steamer basket above boiling water; cover, and steam for 25 minutes, until very tender.
2. Meanwhile, combine the cream, 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of the butter; and the salt in a medium saucepan and heat until the cream simmers and the butter melts.
3. When the potatoes are tender, put them through a ricer or the medium blade of a food mill. Add the cream mixture and mix together well. Then press through a flat tamis or a large strainer, using a rubber spatula or pestle to press the mixture into a stainless steel bowl the will rest in a saucepan without touching the bottom.
4. Make a double boiler by filling the saucepan with 1 inch of water and placing the bowl in it. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Bring the water to a simmer over medium heat. Stir the potatoes as they heat. Cut the remaining 3/4 cup butter into pieces and, using a whisk or rubber spatula, beat into the hot puree until combined. Continue to heat the potatoes over simmering water, stirring often, until hot and silky. Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
23 Comments:
These sound really good. But I actually like lumpy mashed potatoes, so for a weekday dinner, I just smash 'em up with my trusty wire crusher thingy. This would be good for a special dinner though. Nothing like creamy rich taters.
arjava at 12:56PM on 11/04/09
If you can find a net bag as used for herbs, put the peels in it and steam with the potatoes. Gives it more flavour.
NotAmerican at 1:01PM on 11/04/09
The recipe looks scrumptious. But by weight, it looks like just enough potato to hold the butter and cream together. Not that butter and cream held together with a bit of potato starch is a bad thing.
Shecooks at 1:02PM on 11/04/09
@arjava, I agree, "lumpy" mashed potatoes are not necessarily a bad thing, just depends on the dish.
Steaming makes a lot of sense; I'll have to give it a try. I usually simmer them in milk with good results; you just have to have to make sure you use a heavy bottom pot and keeps an eye on the temp as the milk were burn and your SOL.
Burger365 at 1:48PM on 11/04/09
More than simple steaming, the final temperature the potatoes come to is also important. Too hot, and too many cells will burst and release starch, turning the potatoes gluey.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at 1:59PM on 11/04/09
Where did I just read a whole thing on this, where the author tried out a bunch of different methods to find the perfect mashed potato, but decided it was a function of the type of masher you used rather than how you cooked the potato?
AnaPowell at 4:02PM on 11/04/09
I can say that the recipe calls for 50% more butter and 50% more cream than I ever use for 2 pounds of potatoes. The techniques sound good and differ from my technique (actually Joel Robuchon's method) of boiling the potatoes and then heating them before adding anything to draw off as much moisture as possible. I do find that letting the heated potatoes sit after the butter and cream are added allows them to get smoother.
The 50% increase in butter and cream may explain why the mashed potatoes from some restaurants are smoother than any I have ever made.
mike1213 at 4:08PM on 11/04/09
@mike1213
At most restaurants, they use an extremely fine tamis for the potatoes (an expensive tool that is too pricey for me to spring for at home, although I've found a good, cheap alternative: a large splatter screen, which you can buy for a couple bucks). That's how they get the super-smooth texture.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at 4:14PM on 11/04/09
OK, what is that recipe on the cover of the book? Gotta have it!
Hunnyoil at 5:36PM on 11/04/09
we swear by food mills. yummy, smoothy potatoes...
callmenaomi at 7:23PM on 11/04/09
I used to use a ricer, but it made including the skins a total pain. I finally remembered my mother's method, and it turned out pretty well: boil your potatoes (I do want to try steaming them after reading this though), mash them roughly, then use a hand mixer to incorporate your dairy/butter/etc. I kind of did it on the fly with the dairy proportions, but it worked really well and wasn't as labor intensive.
joyyy at 8:32PM on 11/04/09
@Kenji: Regarding the Tamis, I purchased a cheap stainless steel splatter guard a while back. The mesh is extremely fine, almost like fabric. I recently started experimenting with pressing purees through it with amazing results. I'm a bit worried that I'll tear it eventually, since it flexes quite a bit with particularly challenging purees (like stringy roasted pumpkin), but so far it has worked like a dream. It takes quite a bit of work too, but the results are worth it.
velcerick at 9:47AM on 11/05/09
Hah... I didn't finish reading your comment... I guess you mentioned the strainer :p
velcerick at 9:48AM on 11/05/09
Has anybody used those Superbag strainers? Apparently they are extremely fine strainers that are advertised as strong, flexible, and heat resistant (100, 250, and 400 microns). I'm wondering how they hold up through use and what practical applications they would have (apart from straining out sauces). It just seems so tiny that it would take forever to strain anything.
Fritish at 2:57PM on 11/05/09
Count me among the lump-lovers. Also love the skin. In fact, I've had really ethereal soft pillows of creamy mashed potatoes and they remind me of baby food, taste notwithstanding.
@velcerick & J. Kenji - wouldn't it be worth it to work it through something like a foley food mill before you put it through the screen?
lemonfair at 7:41AM on 11/08/09
I am just full of questions...
Will just steaming the garlic cloves alongside the potatoes give the potatoes a garlicky taste???
What to you do with the garlic cloves after steaming them??
Do they get mashed alongside the potatoes too???
Inquiring minds want to know...
MadelynRodriguez at 2:53PM on 11/09/09
Russets? Why not just use Potato Buds? And also, ditto on the cream and butter overdose; sounds greasy.
These days, I tend to use whole un-peeled yukons and just crush them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. It's a much lighter result that lets the potatoes speak for themselves.
xtophr at 6:58AM on 11/10/09
Best thing is to steam the potatoes, rinsing them about 10 minutes in and returning to the steam. It rinses starch off and keeps them from being 'gluey'. I agree that this recipe calls for WAY lots of butter and cream. I believe overkill, but what the heck. Oh, and a ricer the way to go.
GianniB at 11:16AM on 11/11/09
This is exactly what I was looking for! I, too, am a fan of both lumpy and creamy potatoes, depending on the meal. For this T-day, I was hoping to find a fool-proof (because, alas, I can be such a fool in the kitchen) method for creamy mashers. I can't wait to try it out.
browncm at 3:56PM on 11/18/09
These sound so delicious! I think I'll try this out for Thanksgiving...
s.barr at 2:52PM on 11/21/09
As Harold McGee points out in "On Food and Cooking"
Quote: Waxy potatoes require more mashing to obtain a smooth texture, exude more gelated starch, and don't absorb enrichment as easily. The classic French pommes purees, pureed potatoes, are made from waxy potatoes, pieces of which are pushed through a fine sieve or food mill and then worked hard - to the point of having what an eminent French cookbook writer, Mme Ste-Ange, called a "dead arm" - first alone and then with butter, to incorporate air and obtain the lightness of whipped cream. American recipes take a more gentle approach, sieving mealy varieties and carefully stirring in liquid and fat to avoid excessive cell damage, starch release, and glueyness. End quote.
I gotta be real here. For the home cook, the dead arm thing is a pretty good deterrent. After making mashed potatoes professionally for the last decade, all I can add are the following insights; keep everything hot (potatoes, cream-butter), a food mill is nice if you have one but you can still get great results without one, if you want to use a potato masher go ahead, but then use a good strong wire whisk to incorporate the dairy. The potatoes mashers do just that. They pretty much suck at incorporating liquid and adding lightness.
SW Food Works at 12:40PM on 11/23/09
I like to add cooked carrots to my mashed potatoes. I mash them all together. My potatoes never come out the same, some times smooth, some times a bit lumpy, but either way I think they are tasty.
Jonell Elder
http://jonellelder.younglivingcircle.com
Jonell at 1:16PM on 11/23/09
anytime you put potatoes thru a ricer or mill you break doun the fiber tooooo much. you now have what many rest.serve, aka whipped potatoe, aka mud
breking down the fiber that much also removes the potatoes taste and your using this mush to carry the other flavors you add to it such as chives ,garlic etc but the true taste of the potatoe is lost at this point
joejoeb at 2:49PM on 11/29/09