Mashed potatoes recipe

Mashed potatoes are a common side dish with many meals served today. Whether they are homemade or eaten in a restaurant, the nutrition and calorie content should be taken into consideration. (more…)

I already wrote about what kind of potatoes to choose for mashed potatoes. But since this was more of a general look into the types of potatoes this is where I will try to get specific. I browsed the Internet looking for different suggestion – which potato variety is best for mashed potatoes. It seems that two most commonly used are Yukon Gold and Russets. And the general consent is that Yukon Gold is best. Why?

Bot Russets and Yukon Golds are starchy potatoes – that means lots of starch and less water. What does that mean? More starch means fuller potato cells which give fluffier texture.

But still, just comparing Russets and Yukon Golds,  Russets have more starch than Yukon Golds, which are more of all-purpose potatoes. And most cooks say they are best for making mashed potatoes. So if you can get them, try them. If not, don’t worry, your mashed potatoes recipe will taste just fine.

In every mashed potato recipe come a time when you have to mash the potatoes. The moment comes somewhere between cooking and eating them :). Right. Apart from this obvious fact, what do you need to know about mashing the potatoes? There are a few techniques and tools that give a bit different results. They influence the texture of the mashed potatoes. Three most commonly used tools are wire masher, potato ricer and electric mixer.

Wire Masher

Wire masher is the most common tool for making mashed potatoes. You use your hand power to squash and mash the potatoes and the more you work them, the smoother the potatoes will be.

Potato Ricer

Potato ricer looks like and oversized garlic press. Potato ricer mashes the potatoes by forcing them through small holes on the bottom. These holes are often not much larger than a grain of rice. There are a few different types of potato ricers. The most basic potato ricer consists of a grid on a handle. You pres the grid against a flat surface (like the bottom of the pan) and put the potato in between. The second type is the before mentioned – one that looks like a giant garlic press. And the last and most “evolved” is called a food mill. Potatoes (or other food) are driven toward the grid by a large screw, kind of like with the meat grinder. I guess this is to complicated for a simple mashed potato recipe. So if you are using potato ricer use the second one – the one that looks like garlic press.

Potato ricer makes mashed potatoes smoother that wire masher. And finally…

Electric mixer

I won’t be explaining what an electric mixer is (duh), but I will tell you what potato mixer does. First it makes mashed potatoes really really smooth and secondly it also makes them lighter, fluffier by mixing air into the mashed potatoes.

These were the basic tools for making mashed potatoes, you need one of them with every mashed potato recipe. Maybe one more thing – if you are more of a nature man, camping out or if you simply do not have any of the tools above – a simple fork will do as well. You will have to work harder for worse result but if you have no other option you can mash your potatoes with a fork.

There are two things to consider when you are choosing the right potato for your mashed potatoes recipe. One is the amount of starch in the potatoes and the other is the texture of the potatoes.

Low Starch Or High Starch Potatoes?

A potato is mostly made of water and starch and by the amount of starch you have high starch potatoes or low starch potatoes.

High starch potatoes are potatoes like russet and yukon gold. More starch means fuller potato cells which give fluffier texture.

Low starch potatoes are potatoes like round whites. They are waxier and absorb less water (better for cooking, mashed spuds). Cooks also say they have more flavor and less “starchy” taste.

The second thing to look for when you wonder what kind of potatoes to use for mashed potato recipe is texture.

Potato Texture

Texture determines how the potato should be cooked. We can divide potatoes into waxy and floury.

Waxy potatoes are new potatoes. These are harvested early  – in spring or at the beginning of the summer.

Floury potatoes are the usual potatoes the you find in the supermarket. They make the main share of potatoes and are harvested towards the end of summer at beginning of autumn.

If you need potatoes for mashed potato recipe then look for floury potatoes. They are less likely to become gluey. Also a tip – if you are adding milk to your mashed potatoes – add warm milk. Cold milk can cause the starch in the potatoes to set and you will get gluey mashed potatoes.

On the other hand, if you are looking for potatoes to bake, new potatoes might be better. When the potatoes are harvested their skin is very soft, thin and delicate. These are new potatoes. If they are left to cure the skin thickens and you get “old potatoes” (I just made that up I think :)). New potatoes taste better but again, they are not the best kind for making mashed potatoes.

Now, we have picked the right potatoes, lets start cooking- how to cook mashed potatoes. And when you are done cooking browse our site and find some delicious mashed potatoes recipes.

Potatoes are the main ingredient here (duh!). So no wonder they are the base of every mashed potato recipe and no wonder they have a big part in the final taste of your mashed potatoes. So what kind of potatoes are best for turning them into mashed potatoes?

Lets learn a few thing about potatoes first!

Potato is a starchy root vegetable crop that comes from a plant called Solanum tuberosum Solanaceae (or at least from some of the plants subspecies). Potatoes all come from the area that is today Peru and Bolivia. More specifically – southern Peru, just north of Lake Titicaca.

Potato came to Europe around the year 1700 and from Europe mariners spread it all over the world. Still the most diverse potatoes come from the place of origin – in Andes you can find more that 100 different potato varieties in a single valley. Andes really are the home of potatoes. Some of the more known potato varieties include Désirée, Bintje, Fianna, King Edward, Kipfler, New, Nicola, Pink Eye, Pink Fir Apple, Red Pontiac, Rooster, Russet Burbank, Spunta, Chiloé (Camota, Cielo, Pachacona, Clavela Blanca, Cabritas, Chelina).

Potato is the the fourth largest food crop in the world, right after rice, wheat, and corn.

What is in a potato?

Mostly starch! There are about 26 grams of carbohydrates in an average potato and most of it is starch. An interesting medical fact is that some of the starch in potatoes is resistant to enzymatic digestion that happens in stomach and small intestine. It comes almost intact all the way to the large intestine. This has similar effects and benefits as fiber.

Benefits Of Potato – What Are Potato Benefits?

Potato benefits include providing bulk, starch mentioned above offers protection against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations…).

How much of this healthy starch stays in the potatoes depends on how we cook them and what kind of mashed potato recipe do we use :). But enough about that :)

Common Ways To Cook Potatoes

There are more ways to cook potatoes. You can cook them with skin-on or peeled, whole or cut up, with seasonings or without. But anyway you cook them – you must cook them to break down the starch. Next time we will look at potatoes more from the mashed potato recipe point of view or at least from a cooks point of view. Still – mashed potatoes are not the only way to use them in your meals. If you are interested in other potato recipes, you will find plenty of them if you follow the link provided.

Even though mashed potatoes are one of the most common and easy foods there are loads of variations to the mashed potatoes recipe. And everyone has his favorite type. We guess this is one of those foods that everyone ate at home when they were still living with their parents. And this is where you pick up your taste. No matter what you do, where you go and what you eat, you always measure meals by that taste you developed as a kid. If your family never ate fish, you probably don’t like them now. If your family used lots of vinegar on your salads today no salad is sour enough, and so on… And if you mom made great mashed potatoes – well all other mashed potatoes just taste wrong. It’s just that those mashed potatoes that your mom made are the best and all others can’t compare.

Of course they are not wrong, they just come from someone else’s mother :). So you can have your mashed potatoes plain or with lots of milk, maybe with lots of butter, maybe mixed to the max and very smooth or maybe you still like to feel some un-mashed bits and pieces. Maybe you like them with carrots, maybe with a little parsley, maybe with some onions or garlic… None of these are wrong or right but they are all different.

So every time you make mashed potatoes think about your mom :)!

Hello to all potato lovers, this site is dedicated to mashed potato. Yes, really! Mashed potatoes may not seem special enough to have their own website but we disagree! Firstly, mashed potatoes can be just as tasty and delicious as any other food and secondly, there are not enough mashed potato recipes out there. Mashed potatoes are so much more that just a few potatoes smashed together.
We are not going to convince you that there is a science behind mashed potatoes, but by adding different things, mashed potatoes can become quite a dish. Enjoy our site and we hope wi give you some good recipe ideas.