The Unconventional Ingredients Snoop Dogg Adds To Mashed Potatoes

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Growing up in Los Angeles during the peak of '90s West Coast hip-hop, you knew it was a no-brainer for Snoop Dogg and E-40 to work together on a hit track. You just didn't realize one of their biggest collaborations would be a cookbook with an interesting recipe for Cognac mashed potatoes, which relies on some unusual ingredients for flavor, namely Cognac and mayonnaise. Both Snoop and Earl Stevens, otherwise known as E-40, have long been honing their culinary skills independently. Snoop's first cookbook was "From Crook to Cook," published in 2018. Then, in 2023, he and E-40 came together for Snoop's 2023 cookbook follow-up: "Goon with the Spoon." This collaboration featured nearly 70 recipes, including the mashed-potato dish Snoop told People is favorite way to eat mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. 

And they're best for special occasions because they do take a bit more work than regular mashed potatoes. Traditional mashed potatoes are pretty straightforward. Boil the potatoes first, then mix as you add the other ingredients. However, because you're using Cognac, which is a type of brandy, you have to change the process a bit so the alcohol can burn off and leave only the flavor notes of the Cognac to give the potatoes a new layer of sweet flavor. So for this recipe, after boiling the potatoes, you remove them and use the same pot to cook down the Cognac for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol, then add the other ingredients, including the mayo, and cook for a few minutes, or until you're left with a sauce-like reduction. That's when you add the potatoes back into the pot and start mashing. There are plenty of tips to improve your mashed potatoes, but perhaps the best one is not to be afraid to pair unlikely ingredients.

Snoop's Cognac mashed potatoes pair Hennessy (Snoop's suggested Cognac for this recipe) with mayonnaise, which seems like an unlikely pairing at first glance. But Snoop Dogg's no stranger to unlikely pairings. 

He and Martha Stewart did their first collaboration in 2008 on "The Martha Stewart Show," making mashed potatoes following Stewart's family recipe. Their differences were most obvious when Snoop, bewildered by the use of a stand mixer, blurted out: "We in the hood. We like yap, yap, yap, yap," mimicking the use of a potato masher (YouTube). It was so successful that the pair went on to have their own show and a cookbook together. Snoop even has a favorite Stewart recipe, and the two are said to have formed a real friendship, much like the Cognac and mayo do in Snoop's version of mashed potatoes. While adding Cognac gives the dish a little sweetness, the mayo counters it with a tangy edge to prove that opposites do indeed attract.