Dad's Famous Mashed Potatoes Recipe - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

Why do restaurant mashed potatoes taste better? ›

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Sour cream adds a little bit of tangy flavor and a boost of richness to mashed potatoes. It's a fun change from the standard milk or cream and butter combo usually flavoring mashed taters. You can even try your hand at making homemade sour cream from heavy cream!

4 Tips From Martha's Mom for the Best Mashed Potatoes

Cook the potatoes just so, do not under or overcook them: the potatoes are done when you can slide a paring knife in with no resistance. Let the potatoes dry before mashing: Once they are boiled, drain and let them sit in the pan they cooked in for a minute or two.

Made with fresh real potatoes, butter, and milk, Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes tastes like homemade. We put extra care into making our mashed potatoes rich and creamy to deliver that homemade flavor you expect.

Make them at home: Whip them up with milk (dairy-free or regular), butter, salt, and pepper. Add scallions or bacon for a delicious loaded mashed potato, sans stomachache. Order them: Some restaurants add flour as a thickener, so double-check with the kitchen before digging in.

Mash potatoes with half-and-half or milk using a potato masher. Add in the cream cheese and smash until the cheese melts into the potatoes. Add chives or scallions. Season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

They just taste rich (almost impossibly so). They do, however, feel creamy, because egg yolks are also emulsifiers (and are, in fact, the ingredient in mayo that makes it an emulsifier). The yolk emulsifies water and fat to create a cohesive, velvety bite, while providing a little fat and body of its own.

The secret weapon, a good potato ricer (affiliate). This pushes the potatoes into strings, which helps them soak up every bit of the cream and achieve maximum fluffliness.

Sour Cream: The sour cream helps keep the mashed potatoes fluffy. Cream Cheese: This adds a bit of creaminess without being too overpowering. Heavy Cream: Increases the creaminess and helps thin out the potatoes a bit.

Just a pinch of baking soda is all you need to create mashed potatoes as soft as clouds. When you add baking soda, it reacts with the heat of the dish and the acid in the milk or cream to create small air pockets throughout the mash. These air bubbles translate to light and airy bites. Yum!

Is it better to use milk or heavy cream in mashed potatoes? ›

Heavy Cream - While you, hypothetically, could use whole milk or something, I don't recommend it. Part of what makes these the creamiest mashed potatoes is the CREAM! Use the cream, we aren't eating mashed potatoes for our health. Sour Cream - This recipe is rich and it needs some tanginess for balance.

Garten's recipe uses a few simple ingredients, including Yukon Gold potatoes.

Tips for the Best Mashed Potatoes

Start cooking the potatoes in cold water: This ensures that the potatoes cook evenly. Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the middles are still hard and crunchy.

Restaurants make mash with the best potatoes

Along with the variety of potatoes you use, quality is vital. At home, you may mash a few potatoes that look like they need to be cooked before they go bad.

The olive oil helps the seasonings adhere to the surface of the potato. To save time, restaurants often apply the oil with a spray bottle. Thanks to their naturally high starch content, which creates a plush texture under heat, Russet potatoes make a good fit for baking.

Instant mashed potatoes are convenient for busy food establishments like KFC — the only thing employees need to do is add water and mix. The peeling, cooking, and mashing, has already been done. The downside to instant mashed potatoes is that they aren't as fluffy and tend to be bland.