The Secret Ingredient to Better Mashed Potatoes
The Secret to the Best-Ever Mashed potatoes
Potatoes are decidedly the most popular vegetable on the planet. Everyone has their favorite tuber, and the number of ways you can prepare them is enough to make your head spin. Fried, baked, steamed, smashed; the list could go on and on.
While there’s no wrong way to enjoy the starchy delicacy, mashed is my personal favorite, and it’s not uncommon to find me hunched over a separate plate dedicated to the good stuff around the holidays. It goes without saying that we take our spuds very seriously, and if you’re chosen to take on the task of making the mash this year, the stakes are incredibly high.
Related: 101 Best Thanksgiving Side Dishes to Transform Your Holiday Dinner
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of recipes available on the interwebs, and with the help of your trusty Thanksgiving spreadsheet, the room for error is marginal at best (pun intended). While most recipes call for salted boiling water to soften your washed and peeled tubers, some encourage the use of other liquids — like chicken or vegetable stock — to impart additional flavor to the otherwise blank canvas.
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Aside from flavor, texture is probably the most essential component of award-winning mashed potatoes. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a few unmashed chunks, achieving silky smooth, luscious spuds takes the side dish to an entirely different realm of deliciousness. And to achieve the creamiest results possible, @177milkstreet has an ingenious recommendation we wish we’d thought of sooner.
Related: The Easy Side Dish That's the First to Go on Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving Table
In a collaboration video with content creator Rosemary Gill, this version of the creamy side dish omits water altogether and instead goes full tilt by using milk as the cooking liquid. While that might seem a bit unusual, the science behind it is actually pretty solid.
“Potatoes are like pasta, in that they leach starches into their cooking liquid,” shared Gill. Like pasta, reserving some of the cooking liquid allows the spud’s natural creaminess to shine through and makes for an easy one-pot dish.
Although most families have a trusted recipe passed down through generations, if you’re developing your own, this might not be a bad place to start. Once you have the creamy base down, the options for upgrades are only limited by your imagination.
Up next: The Top Chef-Approved Two-In-One Stuffing That's My New Favorite Thanksgiving Side
