Diane Morgan's Classic Mashed Potatoes Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Delicious! Not sure how the bitter first, then milk worked, but it definitely was buttery. Great use for a potato ricer.

If you have time watch Helen Rennie, a cooking teacher on YouTube. Her make ahead mashed potatoes with onions are a fabulous dish. I have made them many times and my guests always ask how they are made. There are never any leftovers.

Delicious! Thank you!

These are amazing! Extremely simple and a good salted, sweet cream butter makes all the difference.

Joy November 19, 2020

What if you cooked the potatoes in the instapot? Would you drain them semi recook out any juice then do melted butter and heat milk?

knoh January 2, 2020

The consistency (I used a masher) and flavor were just perfect using the method in this recipe!

Just to knock your socks off, I will share my Italian families Potato Puff. This is after you make the mashed potatoes. To that, add parm or romano cheese ( handfuls), an egg or two, parsely, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pour in buttered casserole and top with either cornflake crumbs, plops of butter or a breadcrumb panko you prefer. Bake for 30-45 min at 350 deg. Wow. People will never forget that dish. Excellent at holidays.

Easy as can be, and the change to add the butter first and then the milk made all the difference in the world! I'm guessing that from this base you can add any ingredient that you like with mashed potatoes (bacon, garlic, rosemary whatever) and you can't miss.

I’ve been known to put a tad of buttermilk in, just to add a bit of tang. Full fat works best of course. I mix it in with the cream and butter before adding.

I use 2# yukon golds or a combo of yukons and Idahoes. Return to low heat after draining to dry a bit. Add approx. 2/3 stick of unsalted, melted butter. Add 2 heads ( yes, heads) of roasted garlic that has been pureed (immersion blender) in 1/2-2/3 C warmed heavy cream. It will form a thick paste. Be sure to blend in a tall container, working the blender up and down. Add additional warmed cream to the potatoes if needed. Salt to taste. I’ve tried ricing the potatoes before putting them into the Kitchenaid. I found no discernable difference. Note: all quantities (except roasted garlic) are guesstimates.

My mother never used milk,said all the vitamins were in the water,she just poured some out,added the butter,then added 3/4s of a stick of extra sharp cheddar chease,salt and pepper to taste.Never had to worry about freezing leftovers.

Looks great. I had to laugh that it "serves 8" though. Not in our family, lol!

This about melting the butter and heating the milk is a little too-too for me.; I have the butter and milk at room temp, which is usually pretty warm if I'm seriously cooking. For me, the critical thing is to dry the potatoes after I've drained them - put them back in the pot over low heat, mash them roughly with a wooden spoon, drive off the excess moisture. Rice the dried potatoes into a bowl, add about 6 T of butter in blobs, mix it in with a big fork, taste for salt, add enough milk to satisfy your creaminess threshold. I've never had any leftover mashed potatoes.

Interesting food science tid-bit about the butter/milk thing. But, seriously? 2 lbs. of potatoes for 8 people??? Not in my house! If 8 people sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with a miserly 2lbs of spuds on the table, there will be blood. Extra stuffing might soften the blow, but only just...

Cooks Illustrated used this technique and one other. Instead of cutting the potatoes and submerging them, you leave them whole and steam them. It takes forever but you end up with much more potato flavor. They do turn a little brown on the outside; I suppose if that bothered you, you could steam them in the peel and peel them before mashing.

What makes these freezer friendly? How long do they keep in the freezer & what's the best way to reheat them?

What's amazing about this recipe...this is the way my mom and grandmother taught me how to mash potatoes. Remember many holidays doing just this method!

That's interesting. I have a cookbook, The Peefeft Recipe by Pam Anderson, that makes the exact opposite recommendation. Based on loads of tests, she recommends adding the milk before the butter. It's been a while since I've read the recipe, but, if memory serves, she found that the fat coated the potato molecules in such a way that they were prevented from absorbing enough milk.

Is there any reason I couldn't just add the butter to the pan with the drained potatoes, letting their heat melt the butter for me rather than dirty another dish? That's what I currently do, but I'm open to change it if melting the butter beforehand makes for a better result.