Homemade Mashed Potatoes

Is there anyone who doesn’t love mashed potatoes? Okay, I do know of one person who doesn’t like potatoes. If you also number in this category of humans, it’s okay. Stick around because you might be called upon to make them for someone else anyway. 

And by the way, I’m talking real mashed potatoes. Not potato flakes.

There is a time and place for potato flakes, and it’s not a dinner plate. Mine are reserved for feeding my Granny’s sourdough starter. Do I sound snobby? Maybe. Do I know what I’m talking about? Absolutely.

First off, it’s just better financial sense. You can pay $1.29 for a 4-serving bag of instant mashed potatoes, or $1.99 for a 5-pound bag of russets to mash. Taking into account butter and milk, that’s still approximately 20 servings of fresh potato-y mashy goodness, if you decide to mash all those taters and don’t elect for roasted, home fries, hash browns, stew spuds, or scalloped with the others in the bag.

Maybe the whole post should have been about what to do with potatoes.

Look, I’m not trying to be snotty as I absolutely recognize that some people can only afford the cheap bag of just-add-water flakes, because every penny counts. If that’s you, there is no shame in that. But if you only use them because you’ve never tried the real things? You are missing out.

First thing, the texture is just different. There’s a gritty/grainy mouth feel to reconstituted potato flakes. Personally? I’m not a fan. Next, that ingredients list in there is um… a lot. If it just said dehydrated potatoes and maybe salt, I’d be okay. But there’s some keysmash chemical additives in there that I can’t pronounce and I certainly don’t recognize. I’d really just rather not.

Especially when homemade mashed potatoes are so stinking easy.

You’ll want to cook one potato per person you’re feeding. (Unless they’re baby potatoes but please don’t mash those. Enjoy their youthful tenderness and roast them.) If your potato is the Extra Large Jumbo size, maybe count on that feeding two. So a little math, one potato per person eating the mash, plus one extra. Because yum. One tablespoon of butter per potato, one tablespoon of milk (or sour cream) for every potato, salt and pepper to taste.

The recipe below is for the essential recipe of homemade mashed potatoes. They’ll be delicious enough that they won’t need gravy. Unless you want some. But they won’t need it. In the notes, I’ll include ways you can play with the flavor profile to jazz things up, which is always a good time in the kitchen. The important thing here is you have to remember to salt the water they cook in. Just like with grains, salting the water will help the potatoes absorb the savor of the salt.This way, you’re not finding yourself stuck having to pile on more and more salt at the end of the cooking.

Which potatoes are best?

Well honestly, any of them can be a winner. Yukon Golds and Reds are great for mashing, no peeling necessary. Those peels add good fiber and nutrition too. Russets do fantastic with whipping or mashing, though you’ll want skins off on those. Yellows and reds tend to get gummy when you attempt to whip them, versus getting fluffy like russets. Purples are fun, as the skin is fine being boiled, but they fluff well like a russet if whipped. My advice? Experiment with different varieties until you nail down which one brings you the most joy.