I've had "the best mashed potatoes" in his restaurant. They are good but mashed potatoes are not something unachievable with less work. I just can't do the peeling of potatoes when they are hot. The mashed potato dish starts at the 8 minute mark.

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The type of potato matters. Serious Eats has a write up if you are interested.

For me: Great mashed potatoes have a lot of butter, cream and salt. Needs to real butter. My favorite is Vital Farms butter. And yes the butter matters as much as the potato IMO.

2:1 ratio yukons to russets
large cube
let sit in salted water for 20 minutes
boil to soft
drain
Kate's or some other high fat high quality butter
heavy cream
salt & white pepper
freshly ground nutmeg

Same here. But I don't ever use Russets, they don't get creamy like Yukons or Reds. (Russets are good for potato salad because they hold their shape).
Cube them, boil them until soft, put them in the Kitchenaide mixer with the whisk attachment.
What comes next depends on my mood and what else I'm serving.

Sometimes chicken broth, butter, cream, salt&pepper
Sometimes just butter, cream, salt&pepper
Sometimes garlic granules, butter, cream, salt&pepper
Sometimes cream cheese, butter, cream, salt&pepper
Sometimes I peel them, sometimes I don't

Sometimes I get those little potatoes and boil them whole until not quite soft, then take them out to the flattop on the grill, smash them to about 3/4 inch thick with a spatula, brush them with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Grill them on each side until browned.
I do this while the steak is finishing, keeping the grill closed so the smoke from the steak gets infused into the potatoes a little bit.

i just keep putting in butter and sour cream until it tastes right. or i run out.

Cook the taters (loose cookin taters , not firm ones)
drain em
put them back in the still warm pot to reduce a bit more moisture
Now run the taters through a potato ricer
Add pepper
Add salt
Add a bit of nutmeg
Add butter
Add egg
Add warm milk (this is important, cold milk won't have same result you want the taters to gel)
mix it all and serve hot

Try not to eat to much of it before serving, its difficult, I know.

Thanks to ALL for the responses, thus far......FANTASTIC input!

I had never even heard of a potato ricer, so just ordered one from Amazon and it arrives next Tuesday.

My Mom was a great cook and always made sure her kids and husband were provided for. But the best aspect I got from her was the inspiration to be self-reliant in all things home-related. I learned some stuff from her and also a lot on my own after I flew the nest.

The one thing about cooking is you'll never stop learning new things!

Thanks to all once again! :)

Yukon gold potatoes
Peel and cut in half
Boil/simmer until a paring knife stabs and releases easy
Rice it all

In the meantime heat milk or cream add butter salt pepper.

Introduce the two pots until you get the consistency you like.

I'm a huge fan of potato ricers for mashed potatoes for two main reasons:
#1 It helps in not overworking them in the mashing process resulting in a more fluffy, less gummy result
#2 You can boil and leave the skins on. Press them through the ricer with the skins on, the skins stay behind and you just scrape them out of the ricer with a fork when they build up too much. I find it to be a serious time saver. I tell myself it also adds flavor and nutrients boiling with the skin on, but have my doubts as to how true that is.

At the risk of giving you an answer to a question you did not ask... if you ever want to step up the potato game, I highly suggest trying out some variation of potatoes dauphinoise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkyxiH12RgU

[QUOTE=craigster59;12254187]
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1716437451.jpg

This reminded me of the many meals I cooked in the back country of the Sierras. Instant mashed potatoes added to most anything back there added volume, substance, & flavor to something otherwise lacking in those.

Cool....thank you.....will give it a whirl one day! SmileWavy

Potato knish! Mashed potatoes to go.

Washed Yukon gold, cut with skins on, boiled with sprig or two of fresh thyme. Drain and shake the sprigs clean of the leaves into the pot. Hand mash ever so slightly lumpy, with a some half and half and a lot of butter. Ground salt and pepper to taste.

Add bangers with a deglazed sauce, and sauerkraut for an Anglo-German dinner.

Honestly I agree. I don't bother making mashed potatoes anymore, it's way too much work when these are 85% of the way to great, for 3 minutes of microwave time.

Otherwise, the only potatoes we regularly eat are the small red ones, cut in half, dosed in oil, salt and pepper, and grilled unit crispy. Salt them one more time on the grill, 20 minutes while you're meat is cooking, right over the flame.

I’ve made plenty of mashed potatoes, but prefer mashed cauliflower. Boil a head of cauliflower, drain well, use a stick blender to puree it while adding heated butter, heated heavy cream, salt, garlic (minced or powder), white pepper, all to taste. Okay, mashed potatoes - hand mash while adding butter, milk, salt, garlic, white pepper, all to taste. Sometimes I like it rustic and lumpy, drier with skin, other times I like it French style with more milk and finished with whisk (or food processor, or stick blender).

Mashed potatoes from a bag, box, or pouch should not be added to "favourite recipe for mashed potatoes" thread. Quick and dirty, filling and cheap food, sure, its good for that. Sorry if I hurt some feelings, but, come on.

If you havnt tried a ricer you should. Over mixing is a common mistake in an effort to make mashed potatoes "fluffy". But as mentioned, that causes them to get kind of gummy.

potato dolphin noise or should that be dolphin nose? Either way, super confused how dolphins relate to taters.

mashed cauliflower is very tasty. I've had it and it's great without the huge carb hit that you'd get from potatoes.
I don't know that I've ever had instant potatoes (maybe in a cafeteria-type setting), but I was thinking that "should instant be a 'favorite'?"

I did make mashed potatoes once where they were gummy. I actually liked the slightly different texture. I wondered what the deal was.

While on the subject of mashed potatoes, real German warm potato salad is wonderful. Not very many can get it right. I'd eat that over mashed potatoes 100:1.

I generally pressure cook potatoes, generous butter and little milk. I can't believe it took me all these wasted years till i figured out you could add grated cheese inside and have it blend in deliciously. There's french regional dish called Aligot or something, which I discovered on a trip where it's 50% mashed spuds and 50% some sort of local mountain Toma cheese, I died on the spot and how delicious and stringy it was... Been trying to reproduce this with a variety of american cheeses since, each failure is still delicious.

Interesting, sounds tasty. I love mashed potatoes (don't have it much) and love cheese, and love cheese and stuff, so sounds heavenly.

Yes it is aligot or pommes aligot.

I've had mac-n-cheese, cheese grits, and cheese rice which are all basically starch and cheese. So I've got to think that aligot would be tasty.