How to Make Better Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potato goes with almost everything, and most of what separates a good one from a gluey one happens before the butter goes in.

Here is what matters.

Boil them in their skins

Peeled potatoes waterlog. They take on water as they cook and break apart, and you end up mashing something that is already half liquid.

Boiled whole and unpeeled, they hold their structure and their flavor. Scrub them well first — you are going to use that cooking water.

Drain them and peel while still hot. The skins slip off easily; wait until they cool and they cling.

Keep the cooking water

This is why the scrubbing matters. The water has taken on flavor from the potatoes and it is better than plain water for loosening the mash.

Add it warm, a little at a time, until you have the consistency you want.

Do not use a blender

Use a fork, a masher, or better still a ricer or food mill.

A blender or food processor ruptures the starch granules in the potato and releases the starch as free gel. The result is the sticky, elastic texture you cannot fix once it happens — the potato equivalent of overworked dough.

Slow and by hand is the whole trick.

Choose the right potato, and size them evenly

Starchy potatoes — russets, or a floury variety — make light, fluffy mash. Waxy potatoes hold together and turn gluey when mashed.

Pick potatoes of roughly equal size so they finish cooking at the same time. Mixed sizes mean some are falling apart while others are still firm in the center.

Butter before milk

Add the butter first, while the potato is still hot, and work it in before any liquid.

Fat coats the starch granules and protects them from the water that follows. Add the milk first and it goes straight into the starch, which is the other route to gluey mash.

Warm the milk and cream

Cold dairy stiffens the potato and drops the temperature of the whole batch. Warm it first — it absorbs smoothly and the mash stays hot.

A pinch of turmeric

Adding a little turmeric to the cooking water gives the mash a deeper yellow color and a faint earthiness alongside it. Use a small pinch; more than that and it tastes of turmeric.

Two more things

Season the cooking water generously with salt. Potatoes seasoned from the inside taste different from potatoes salted at the end.

Dry them before mashing. After draining, return the peeled potatoes to the hot empty pot for a minute over low heat and let the surface steam off. Less water in the potato means more room for butter.