Interested to know about mashed potatoes. For Christmas dinner, which we had at an American friends house, the mashed potatoes were glutinous and totally unlike our idea of mashed potatoes. Had the same thing before at a mid market restaurant in Las Vegas. Asked the LV waitperson how they were perpared and was told that hey were done in a blender. Like glue.
The mashed potatoes in our world, I guess ex UK though have never thought about it before (what/where is the home of mashed potatoes?) are floury to start with, mashed with a masher, butter is added and whipped with a fork after it has melted, then milk is whipped in with a fork.
Result is fluffy and while potatoes could never be described as light the texture is far from the very sticky glutinous glop that we had in Las Vegas and for Christmas. I should add that the potatoes we would use, and those that our hostess used, are absolutely the same.
So, how do you prepare your smashed potatoes?