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Fluffy Mashed Potatoes Recipe - America's Test Kitchen
This recipe works best with either a metal colander that sits easily in a Dutch oven or a large pasta pot with a steamer
insert. To prevent excess evaporation, it is important for the lid to fit as snugly as possible over the colander or steamer.
A steamer basket will work, but you will have to transfer the hot potatoes out of the basket to rinse them off halfway
through cooking. For the lightest, fluffiest texture, use a ricer. A food mill is the next best alternative. Russets and white
potatoes will work in this recipe, but avoid red-skinned potatoes.
Fluffy Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4
When cooking potatoes for mashed potatoes, keeping the skins on yields the best potato flavor, but peeling hot potatoes is awkward and even dangerous when rushing to put dinner on the table.
We wanted a mashed potato recipe that allows more of the prep work to be done in advance, but still delivers a fully smooth mash with robust, earthy potato flavor.
Gluey potatoes are a result of starch granules that swell with water and then burst during cooking, releasing a gel that turns potatoes sticky. Cooking the potatoes with their skins on protects the starch granules, reducing the gumminess. To give peeled potatoes the same protection, we made two alterations to our usual technique. Steaming rather than boiling the potatoes exposes the potato pieces to less water, reducing the chance of the granules swelling to the point of bursting. Some granules, however, will inevitably burst; rinsing the potatoes midway through cooking removes the resultant gel. As a bonus, we found that this method requires less butter and dairy to achieve the same richness as conventional mashed potatoes. Our finished recipe reduces the amount of butter from 8 to 4 tablespoons and replaces a full cup of cream with just 2/3 cup of whole milk.
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