Potatoes 101
Tips, tricks, common mistakes, FAQ, and a 40 hours of culinary school potato education condensed into one guide to help you achieve the perfect mashed potatoes!
In my opinion, potatoes are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON THE PLATE on Thanksgiving. They are delicious, the perfect vehicle food, and better than turkey imo. But I’m seeing a lot of potato misinformation out there and I want to make sure you guys have the most perfect potatoes!
Not to get too into it, but recipe bloggers typically make their money on ads run on their website. These ads are based on “page time,” which is essentially how long someone scrolls and stays on a page. This tends to be why a simple mashed potato recipe is accompanied by 5 paragraphs about someone’s grandmother’s backstory. They’re trying to get you to scroll, and they’re trying to engineer their SEO to get on the first page of Google. People who actually use the recipe often screenshot it and use it from their camera roll (giving the author no page time). As a result, there is very minimal economic incentive to create good, reliable, well-tested recipes. Thanksgiving is one of the biggest days of the year for online recipe traffic so it can turn into a mad scramble of people vying for the top SEO with little regard for the outcome. There are a lot of fantastic recipe bloggers out there but there are also some not so good ones that occasionally manage to bubble to the top.
I love Substack for many reasons, but transparent pricing and outcomes are one of them. Some people pay to subscribe, and I test and send out recipes. We genuinely spent over a week and 40+ hours learning every possible thing there is to know about potatoes and I’ve condensed that down for you guys. I’ve included my potato recipe and created a guide explaining some of the science behind making mashed potatoes, tips and tricks, and a common mistakes section. If you have a recipe you love, this can help tweak; it. Hope you enjoy!
Potato Types and Their Uses
Potatoes are generally classified into two main groups: waxy and starchy. The general rule of thumb is “waxy potatoes are for roasting and starchy potatoes are for boiling”. Waxy potatoes have a high moisture content and low starch content, meaning they hold their shape well when cooked and don’t soak up delicious things like butter and cream very well 😔. Starchy potatoes have a high starch and low moisture content. They tend to fall apart easily and drink up liquids making them perfect for mashing!
This is a general guide I put together to help you understand the starchiness of potatoes.
Russet potatoes are the gold standard for mashing and what I always use! Structurally, Yukon golds are horrible for mashing and I think they give a weird grainy texture. But they have a much more prounouced “potato” flavor, so some people like to use them 🤷♀️. Yukon golds and little reds are IDEAL for roasting, though. They have thin, delicate skins that you can barely taste once cooked, so if you like to toss some potatoes underneath your turkey, these are perfect for that!
Common problems and what’s causing them FAQ
My potatoes have little hard lumps in them!
This can happen when potatoes are not entirely cooked through. If potatoes aren’t chopped evenly, sometimes the small ones will seem like they’re cooked through but the big ones will still be hard in the center. Don’t be afraid to cook your potatoes for longer! Overcooked is always better than undercooked with potatoes! They should fall apart when you poke them with a fork.
My potatoes are gummy!
This is caused by overmixing! Many recipes say to whip or overmix your potatoes, which causes the starches to become gummy and doughy. To minimize mixing, use a potato ricer to break them up then gently and softly whisk. Less is more!
My potatoes are flavorless and bland!
SALT, SALT, SALT. I can’t emphasize enough how much salt mashed potatoes can take. You would be shocked if you went into a restaurant how much salt they use. 1 lb of potatoes can genuinely take 2-3 tsps of salt before it starts to taste salty. Add more salt, taste, and repeat until you can taste the butter and potato!
My potatoes are yellow or brown instead of creamy white!
When potatoes are exposed to oxygen, they rapidly oxidize and turn brown. To prevent this keep two bowls of water on your counter as you peel and chop your potatoes. The minute they’re peeled, place them in water. Once you’re done peeling, chop them one by one and immediately submerge the chunks in water. This will prevent browning!
My potatoes are soupy!
This means the potatoes have too much liquid for the starch to absorb! There are two fixes. You can boil and add more plain potatoes. Or you can transfer to a pot on the stove and cook on very low, gently mixing with a spatula to evaporate some of that water (careful not to overmix!).
Tip and Tricks
Use a ricer not a masher!
The longer you mix potatoes the gummier they will get. Using a ricer breaks down the potato evenly without mixing it. It significantly reduces the time you have to mash, giving you fluffier, creamier potatoes.
Peel your potatoes!
Peel your potatoes! When potatoes are exposed to sunlight, they produce a chemical called solanine. You might be familiar with seeing your potatoes turn green if you leave them out in the sunlight. That’s solanine. It has a bitter taste, and inevitably, all potato skins have a bit of it in them. Peeling them helps remove that bitter taste.
Warm your fat!
If you pour cold cream straight into hot potatoes, it’s like jumping into an ice-cold lake. It will make everything contract and harden, resulting in denser, harder potatoes. Warm butter and cream is like a gentle bath that helps your potatoes relax!
Use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
Not all salt is the same. Iodized table salt is significantly saltier than diamond crystal. One tbs of iodized salt will make your food twice as salty as diamond crystal.
Start your potatoes in cold water
Starting your potatoes in cold water and then turning on the stove and bringing it up to boiling creates a much more even cook and prevents the unevenly cooked lumpiness. It gently warms the potato throughout. When you toss potatoes straight into boiling water it’s not the end of the world but the exterior will cook much more rapidly than the interior. This gives a mushy exterior and hard interior when we want soft and tender throughout instead.
I know this sounds crazy but my ricer scares me 😬 the last time I used it the potatoes were super gummy 😵💫🫣
Could these be made ahead of meal time? If so could you recommend a way to keep them warm? Thanks!