Mashed potatoes are something that we all know and love. They make a great side dish to accompany your favorite meat entrée, and are so versatile that you can serve them with almost anything. Although most people understand the underlying principles of how to make mashed potatoes, there are some techniques and secrets that restaurant chefs employ to ensure that their mashed potatoes are better than the ones you make on turkey day.
Mashed Potato Procedure
- Peel whole russet potatoes and cut into manageable chunks. I’ll usually cut my potatoes into quarters lengthwise, and then cross cut them into pieces roughly measuring about 2.5 inches.
- Place your potato chunks in an appropriate sized pot, add a couple large pinches of salt and cover with cold water. Starting your potatoes in cold water will allow the complex starches to cook more evenly.
- Place the pot on your stovetop, turn to high heat, and bring to a boil.
- Once the water begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until fork tender.
- When the potatoes are fork tender, strain them off and make sure that all the water is allowed to strain out.
- From this point, most home cooks would simply mash with a hand masher, add butter, salt, pepper, and possibly a touch of cream. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this method, but if you want your mashed potatoes to truly be the best that you dinner guests have ever put into their mouths, then keep reading.
Secrets to Making Great Mashed Potatoes
So what are the secrets that restaurant chefs use to make great mashed potatoes? Here they are, in no particular order.
- Use a food mill. Passing your mashed potatoes through a food mill will give them a wonderful silky smooth texture. Do this first, before you add your butter and cream. If you like your mashed potatoes chunky, fine, then don’t mill them. However, silky mashed potatoes are much harder to come by in the home, and honestly, they just taste better.
- Add enough butter to give your cardiologist a heart attack. The number one reason why mashed potatoes made by a restaurant chef will always taste better than yours is because they mix in an enormous amount of butter. A good place to start is about 1-2 ounces of butter per large russet potato used.
- Use European style butter. Most fine dinning chefs use European style butter because it has a higher fat content. One brand that is commercially available to the home cook is Land O Lakes. It should say something like “European Butter” on the box. If you haven’t figured it out yet, fat is KING.
- Whip the milled potatoes with the whisk attachment on your kitchen aid. This will give them a light and airy texture. It is also the perfect point in the process to stream in a little cream.
- The creaminess from your mashed potatoes should come from the melted butter, not the cream. Add your butter first until the mashed potatoes reach their desired consistency, and then add a touch of cream for added body and texture.
- Some chefs believe that melting the cream and butter together before adding them to their mashed potatoes allows the fat to coat the starch granules of the potatoes more evenly, giving it a better texture. More importantly, adding hot cream and butter to your mashed potatoes will allow you to add more fat content with it separating out from your potatoes.
- Season your potatoes well with plenty of kosher salt. The number one mistake that most home cooks always make is they under season their food. If you made your mashed potatoes properly, they should contain an enormous amount of fat, which will coat the palate. To counteract this, a little extra salt is needed to really bring out the flavor.
What are some of your favorite things to add to mashed potatoes, and what secret tricks do you use to make them the best your dinner guests have ever tasted?
*For more information, Listen to The Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 4*
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Your secret for insanely buttery Pommes Purée isn’t that secret–what you’re making in your blender is basically an unflavored Buerre Blanc, and as Harold McGee points out, any amount of butter can incorporated without the need for additional emulsifiers (though I’m sure you Xanthan gum trick thickens it more). So you’re flavoring your Buerre Blanc with potatoes instead of the usual shallots and vinegar.
The secret is in the use of the Xanthan gum. Such a small amount of the gum is added that the thickness of the emulsion comes from the addition of the butter itself, not the gum. The gem to using Xanthan though is the freedom it gives you to play around with the ratio of water to fat, which opens up endless possibilities for flavor combinations, not to mention your emulsion can have any viscosity you desire.
Plus, even a well made beurre blanc blended into mashed potatoes has many opportunities to break; if the mashed potatoes are too hot, if the beurre blanc is too cold, or if some jack-ass line cook accidentally turns up the flame under your double boiler. The use of Xanthan gum is basically “insurance” from the cooks arch nemesis, Murphy.
By the way, I’m not flavoring my beurre blanc with potatoes instead of shallots and vinegar. I’m basically making a stable emulsion that allows me to add more butter to my pommes puree without it breaking; if your pommes puree breaks in the middle of dinner service you’re basically screwed.
“Mo’ Butter Mo’ Better!”
I was uder the impression that you wanted to do as little damage to the cell structure of the potato to stave off the gluey potato blues. To do this I was told to first boil the potatoes in their skins ( or better yet steam them ), peal them, then use a ricer that causes less cell damage then fold in your butter/milk or cream mixture. You then preserve as much as the original mouth-feel of the original potato.
Gord,
You’re absolutely right, and the technique that you describe was used by Escoffier himself. The real thing to understand though is that potatoes contain gluten. “Over-working” your mashed potatoes forms a gluten matrix, which is responsible for making your mashed potatoes “gluey.”
Although the technique you describe above is very traditional for creamy mashed potatoes, as long as you incorporate your milk/cream & butter into your mashed potatoes fast enough without over working them, you shouldn’t have any problems. This is also why using a ricer works really well; it takes less effort to incorporate your fat.
Another trick you can use is to peel and dice your potatoes into large chunks first, and then run your potatoes under cold water in your cooking pot until the water starts to run clear. This will in effect “rinse” the potatoes of any excess starch, helping you to keep your potatoes from becoming gluey.
Also, some chef’s prefer to use Yukon Gold Potatoes instead of Russets because the Golds contain less starch.
In the podcast you said you’d add a list and/or links to some suggested food mills. Since I don’t see anything on food mills here, would you suggest the Kitchen Aid attachment, or is there something better?
Thanks.
Brian,
I totally forgot…Thanks for keeping me honest. If you go to the FCS Episode 4 page I put up a couple of links there.
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