Mashed Potatoes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How many potatoes per person to make mashed potatoes? ›

Taste before serving: I like to add a scoop of Better then Bouillon chicken base for great flavor, or add more salt and pepper, sour cream, or melted butter, until you reach the flavor you want. nt to add more salt and pepper, or an extra scoop of sour cream, or a little melted butter.

Potatoes are like pasta, in that they leach starches into their cooking liquid. In the case of pasta, you want to reserve some of that liquid to give sauce a luscious shine and bind it to the noodles.

Lumpy mashed potatoes generally mean undercooked potatoes. If you get to this point and you realize you've undercooked your potatoes, just add a little bit of milk or cream and cook the potatoes over a low heat until the lumps begin to soften.

It depends on the size of potatoes, if they are big and heavy in size you will get less number of potatoes(3–4) and if they are small and somewhat less heavy then you will get 7–8 potatoes…but that so approximately. How many red potatoes is 2 lbs? Use a kitchen scale .

Add the butter and warm milk to the bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork (or pass the potatoes through a ricer or food mill for a smoother mash). Season with salt and pepper. Plan on 1/3 to 1/2 pound potatoes per person for your feast.

Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low to maintain a simmer, and cover. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until you can easily poke through the potatoes with a fork.

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!

Simmer gently until soft but not mushy. A “ricer" is great but fiddly. Use a hand masher, no need to melt the butter — the potatoes will do that — a little milk or, luxury, cream.

Should you let potatoes cool before mashing? ›

There's no need to cool potatoes at all before mashing them. It's actually easier to mash them while warm. It also means better taste! Also, if you're using butter in them, the heat allows it to melt into them.

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.

Damage control and general tips for mashed potatoes

But at the risk of your potatoes getting gummy and gluey, just mashing harder will not work. Instead, using a ricer or a food mill in conjunction with the even cooking processes will help to break down the potatoes while still preserving their fluffy textures.

For good measure: Be careful not to overcook potatoes you plan to mash, because the starch cells will break down and create a sticky mash. Cook them just until a thin-bladed knife meets a bit of resistance. It is also important to drain the potatoes well after cooking to prevent gumminess.

For a big spread with lots of side dishes, you'll want to have about four ounces (125 grams) of potato (that's precooked weight) per person. If you're serving fewer sides, you can up it to about eight ounces (250 grams) per person.

A standard 5-pound bag of potatoes can contain anywhere from 10 to 15 medium-sized potatoes, while a smaller 2-pound bag might contain 5 to 7 potatoes.