THE INGREDIENTS:

Russet Potatoes: Russet potatoes are the classic brown potato that we can find at any grocery store. We have found that these potatoes are incredibly fluffy when mashed and, compared to yellow potatoes (Yukon gold), provide a lighter-in-color, more appealing mashed potato. Besides having a slightly yellow tinge when mashed, Yukon Golds also have a distinct flavor that distract from how simple mashed potatoes can be. Finally, russet potatoes are generally noticeably cheaper than Yukon Golds, making them better for your wallet as well. For our 5 potatoes, we use a “medium” sized potato. This means that the potato is roughly 5 inches long. For contrast, a “small” potato is a potato that is closer to 3 inches long. If you do not have medium potatoes, simply do 2 small potatoes for every medium potato or have 1 large potato count as 1.5-2 medium potatoes. 

Butter: Butter is hard-we don’t want to under-do or over-do it. Too much butter leads to an overwhelming, greasy flavor but omitting the butter stops the mashed potatoes from getting fluffy and slightly decadent, as they should be. We do not recommend reducing the butter in this recipe beyond the 2 tablespoons that we have written down-we’ve tried it, and the mashed potatoes are just not as good. However, if you prefer a heavier amount of butter, proceed with caution! Only add 1 extra tablespoon, see if you prefer it to our 2 tablespoon version, and go from there. Adding much more than that will get excessive, affect the texture, and lead to a greasy flavor. We use unsalted butter as it is what we have on hand and allows us to have more control over how much salt goes in a dish. 

Milk: Another difficult ingredient! Too much milk and you will have accidentally made potato soup. On the other hand, too little and your potatoes will be much less fluffy than they could have been. Just like with the butter, we recommend not putting less milk in the recipe than we have stated-it just won’t get as fluffy! However, depending on the size of your potatoes, you may have to add a couple extra tablespoons of milk. So, if your potatoes are not fluffy enough yet, add more milk one tablespoon at a time until they are at your desired consistency. 

Salt: A basic ingredient that you must not omit! Having no salt in the mashed potatoes leads to an incredibly bland flavor. However, too much salt can quickly become overwhelming, especially as mashed potatoes are usually eaten with other salty foods: meats, main dishes, and gravy (among other things). ½ tsp is not a lot of salt, but considering that you will be eating these mashed potatoes with other salty components of a meal, is just the right amount to have flavorful potatoes without your overall meal reading as “salty”. 

Freshly Cracked Black Pepper: For dishes such as mashed potatoes, we don’t recommend adding a lot of different spices-some things are best kept simple, after all. Therefore, we want to be using the best black pepper that we can since it will be the lone spice (except for salt) in our mashed potatoes. Black pepper that is not freshly cracked has a distinctly different flavor that we would describe as less sharp. Freshly cracked black pepper, on the other hand, is sharper and can come in the form of “rainbow” peppercorns-where there are varieties of peppercorns in the grinder so that you get a mixture of peppercorns, enhancing the flavor. Go with your preference as everyone can tolerate a different amount of black pepper-but don’t shy away from it! 

KEY INFORMATION:

Whipping Mashed Potatoes-What Tools are the Best?  A masher and a simple wooden spoon are our tools of choice! When it comes to potato mashers, we prefer the ones that have small holes in them as compared to potato mashers that appear to be more like one curvy line. The curvy line mashers don’t mash as much of the potatoes, leading to chunks and more effort if you want a smoother mashed potato, as we do. The mashers with holes leave far less chunks and are easier to work with, getting your mashed potatoes on the table much faster. For the spoon, it being wood is not essential, but we believe that flatter spoons work better than spoons that have more carrying capacity, as they don’t whip up as well and the mashed potatoes get stuck in the deeper spoons. 

Boiling Times and the Fork Trick: Depending on how small you dice your potatoes, you won’t have to boil them as long! We don’t recommend cutting huge chunks or even putting in your peeled potatoes whole in the boiling water as the insides will be at a different textural stage than the outsides when you are done boiling. If you make them too small, however, they will disintegrate in the boiling water. A rough dice where you are getting about 12 chunks/medium potato is the sweet spot, in our opinion. Once your mashed potatoes have been boiling for a decent chunk of time, poke them with a fork. If the fork goes through easily (no resistance!), then the potatoes are ready to drain and mash! If you have to use strength to get the fork through or the fork doesn’t go through, keep boiling. Never blindly follow a time estimate as you may end up with under or over boiled potatoes. 

Make-Ahead and Leftover Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes are best made fresh! We recommend that making the mashed potatoes is your last step for any meal, as they do not sit out well compared to a lot of other components of a meal. Over time, the potatoes become less fluffy and, although they can still be eaten for leftovers, they are best suited for recipes specifically made for leftover mashed potatoes.