MASHED POTATOES Mashed potatoes are a particularly divisive topic in my family See, I like mine rich and perfectly smooth, with plenty of butter and heavy cream, lots of black pepper, and maybe some chives if I’m dressing to impress (I usually am) Somewhere between a dish on its own and a sauce, the mash should have the consistency of a pudding, slowly working its way across a tilted plate I like to pick up a piece of turkey and swirl it in my gravy-covered potatoes so that they coat it, their buttery richness working into the cracks in the meat Sounds good, right? Who could possibly want it any other way? My sister That’s who For Pico (yes, that’s her real name), mashed potatoes should be fluffy and thick enough to stand up under their own weight, Close Encounters of the Third Kind –style The kind of mashed potatoes that can hold their own on the plate The kind that you want to turn into a TV commercial with a pat of butter slowly melting on top I’m talking smooth but light and fluffy So how you arrive at such two different results with the same starting ingredients? It’s all got to do with starch The Starch For our purposes, potatoes can be thought of as basically three different things First, there are the cells, the little microscopic bubbles that all living things are made from These cells are held together with pectin, a sort of natural plant glue, and the walls of the cells are where the starch is concentrated The starch molecules—a type of carbohydrate—come bundled up in tight granules As potatoes cook, the pectin breaks down and individual cells expand and separate, releasing starch granules into the outside environment These starch granules absorb water like little balloons, eventually popping and releasing sticky starch molecules The concentration of released starch that makes its way into the final mashed potatoes to a large degree determines their consistency To put it simply: for lighter, fluffier potatoes, the goal is to incorporate as little starch as possible in the final product • Potato type (see here–here) plays a huge role in this Mealy russet potatoes have cells that readily fall apart from each other, meaning you don’t have to cook them or work them too hard to get them to a relatively smooth consistency Less working means fewer burst starch granules, which means fluffier mashed potatoes Waxier Yukon Golds or Red Bliss require longer cooking, and they must be worked fairly hard to separate their cells, making for creamier mashed potatoes • The mashing method can drastically alter your end results Carefully pressing the potatoes through a tamis (drum sieve), ricer, or food mill will separate the cells with minimal shearing action to break up the starch Throw potatoes in a food processor, and an avalanche of starch gets released, turning your potatoes into the consistency of ... pressing the potatoes through a tamis (drum sieve), ricer, or food mill will separate the cells with minimal shearing action to break up the starch Throw potatoes in a food processor, and an...These cells are held together with pectin, a sort of natural plant glue, and the walls of the cells are where the starch is concentrated The starch molecules—a type... longer cooking, and they must be worked fairly hard to separate their cells, making for creamier mashed potatoes • The mashing method can drastically alter your end results Carefully pressing the