Potatoes with a high starch content, like Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes, yield fluffy mashed potatoes as their starch expands during the boiling process.

Waxy potatoes, like red and baby potatoes, on the other hand, become gluey, mushy, and unappealing when mashed, as they’re typically watery with a much lower starch content.

Adding salt to the cooking water draws out the potatoes’ sweetness as they boil, boosting their flavor and keeping them from tasting bland or bitter.

If you salt your potatoes post-cooking, you may not get the same saltiness throughout the entire dish. Plus, the dish can turn pasty if you overmix the spuds when adding more salt.

Unlike electric mixers and beaters, which can lead to mushy, goopy potatoes, a hand potato masher or fork gives you more control over your mashed potatoes’ texture.

While high-powered electric mixers quickly break down the starches in potatoes, gentle hand mashing keeps them intact, yielding mashed potatoes with a richer, more robust flavor.

Potato ricer gently presses potato chunks through tiny perforations, eliminating lumps while keeping the spuds from releasing too much starch

and becoming gooey.

Additionally, when you add cooked, unpeeled potato chunks flesh-side down to the potato ricer, the tool coaxes the potato flesh away from the skin and into your mixing bowl.

Milk works well in mashed potatoes, and its neutral flavor doesn’t clash with other spices or mix-ins, but the richest, creamiest potatoes use cream.

When you mash potatoes using a heavy cream with a high fat content, the fats bind to the potato starches, coating every bite with a luxuriously creamy flavor and a silky mouthfeel.