The Ultimate Mashed Potatoes

I had the opportunity this past Thanksgiving week to make a few batches of mashed potatoes, and was thinking about how I traditionally would cook the potatoes in salted water. This year, I decided to change things up a bit and cook the peeled potatoes in a mixture of seasoned heavy cream and whole milk.

I got this idea from a friend who had worked briefly at a famous restaurant where they were cooking fingerling potatoes in plastic bags with some heavy cream and milk, and then blending the potatoes with the liquid after peeling them. Peeling the fingerling potatoes sounded like a bummer to me, so I’ve elected to use peeled Yukon Golds in the version described below.

The cooked potatoes are then mashed with some extra butter, in addition to some of the liquid that they cooked in earlier. The end result comes out really great.

Use any leftover milk and cream to make a leek and potato soup later on during the week!

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The Ultimate Mashed Potatoes

I had the opportunity this past Thanksgiving week to make a few batches of mashed potatoes, and was thinking about how I traditionally would cook the potatoes in salted water. This year, I decided to change things up a bit and cook the peeled potatoes in a mixture of seasoned heavy cream and whole milk.

I got this idea from a friend who had worked briefly at a famous restaurant where they were cooking fingerling potatoes in plastic bags with some heavy cream and milk, and then blending the potatoes with the liquid after peeling them. Peeling the fingerling potatoes sounded like a bummer to me, so I’ve elected to use peeled Yukon Golds in the version described below.

The cooked potatoes are then mashed with some extra butter, in addition to some of the liquid that they cooked in earlier. The end result comes out really great.

Use any leftover milk and cream to make a leek and potato soup later on during the week!

Ingredients

• 32 oz 2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut large dice
• 24 oz heavy cream
• 24 oz whole milk (or enough to barely cover your potatoes)
• Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper (to taste)
• 2 sticks (16 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened)

Instructions 

• Peel and dice the potatoes.
• Add the diced potatoes to a soup pot, and barely cover them with a mixture of heavy cream and whole milk.
• Bring the contents up to just below a simmer, stirring often so none of the cream sticks to the bottom of the pot.
• Add Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper until the liquid tastes pleasantly seasoned.
• Reduce the heat to low, and cook the potatoes slowly in the mixture of milk and cream.
• When the potatoes are totally cooked through and tender, drain the potatoes from their liquid and reserve the liquid.
• Quickly mash the potatoes with some of their cooking liquid, along with the two sticks of butter.
• *It’s important to start working with your potatoes right away, as you want to mix them with the butter while they are still hot.
• Taste, and continue slowly adding small amounts of the cream and milk cooking liquid until you are satisfied with the consistency and taste of the mashed potatoes.
• *You will likely have some cream and milk cooking liquid leftover at the end, which you can save and use as a base for a soup.
• Add more Kosher salt if desired.
• Serve hot.

Notes

These mashed potatoes taste good when reheated, and although I usually try to make them right before serving them.
I like to cook dried pasta in any leftover milk and cream the next day. It comes out tasting like a pasta alfredo, without the added cheese. You can even bake it in the oven as a pasta casserole, where the pasta almost absorbs the liquid as it softens up.