High angle of tacos on white wooden board

13 Secrets

To Make

Your Mashed Potatoes Taste Even Better

NEWS

By SARAH KEELER

Russet potatoes in a burlap sack

Use Starchier Potatoes

Potatoes with a high starch content, like Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes, yield fluffy mashed potatoes as their starch expands during the boiling process.
Pile of red potatoes
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.
Hand adding salt to a pot

Add Salt To Cooking Water

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.
Hand mashing potatoes in a bowl
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.
Hands mashing potatoes using masher

Mash By Hand

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.
An electric mixer on kitchen counter
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 mashing potatoes

Use Potato Ricer

Potato ricer gently presses potato chunks through tiny perforations, eliminating lumps while keeping the spuds from releasing too much starch
and becoming gooey.
Bowl of mashed potatoes
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 being poured into a pot

Swap Milk For Heavy Cream

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.
a carton of heavy 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.