Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secrets

Mashed potatoes is a popular dish.  Mashed potatoes taste ranges from awful to great, depending on who makes it.  Have you tried making mashed potatoes, but had them turn out to be less than perfect? You can improve your mashed potatoes recipe significantly if you use these secrets to making perfect mashed potatoes.  Mashed potato secrets are now revealed!

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #1: Type Of Potatoes

The kind of potatoes that you use to make mashed potatoes matters. Russet potatoes are the best kind of potatoes for making mashed potatoes.  The second choice is Yukon Gold potatoes.  Don’t use any other kind of potatoes for making mashed potatoes – especially the red potatoes – they just have the wrong consitency when mashed.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #2: Don’t Use A Food Processor

Using a food processor is the biggest no-no when making mashed potatoes!  This is the most important secret to making perfect mashed potatoes.  Using the food processor to mash your potatoes will turn them gummy.  The texture and taste of the potatoes mashed in food processor is really nasty!

The best tool for mashing the potatoes is a simple potato masher.  Just press on the potatoes with a potato masher, the potatoes will go through the holes on potato masher and will get mashed.

If the mashed potatoes produced by potato masher are too lumpy for your taste, you can use the hand-held mixer to whip them further (as the last step, after adding milk and butter).  Just don’t overdo it – too much mixing will result in gummy texture, similar to the food processor.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #3: Mash Them While They Are Hot

Mash the potatoes immediately after draining them, while they are still hot.  If the potatoes cool down, they won’t mash as nicely and smoothly.  Don’t rinse the potatoes either – just drain the hot water out and mash the hot potatoes immediately.  Have all extra ingredients ready, so the potatoes don’t cool down while you are trying to get yourself together :)

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #4: Warm Up The Milk

Don’t even add cold milk to the mashed potatoes.  The milk that goes in the mashed potatoes must be hot!  If you are using the cream instead of milk, same thing applies – heat it before adding it.   The easiest way to heat up milk is to put it in a cup and warm it in a microwave.  It will just take a minute, but will really make a difference in the taste and consistency of your mashed potatoes.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #5: Add Real Butter

Butter really brings out the flavor in mashed potatoes.  Even if you are watching your calories, add some butter for a great mashed potato taste.  You don’t have to add too much butter – a little goes a long way!  Butter is a necessary ingredient for perfect mashed potatoes.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Secret #6: Serve Immediately

Mashed potatoes must be served immediately if you want the best flavor.  Reheated mashed potatoes just don’t taste the same.  If you are planning to serve mashed potatoes later, you need to use a special make-ahead mashed potato recipe that uses additional ingredients to preserve the flavor.  With regular mashed potatoes, you must serve them right away, so plan accordingly.

Follow these mashed potato secrets, and you’ll make perfect mashed potatoes.  Enjoy!