To the brave gladiators of the Mashed Potato Wrestling Federation, it does not matter whether the potatoes are peeled beforehand or if the cooking water is correctly salted.
“You just want to make sure you don’t breathe it into your lungs,” said Steve Barone, a video producer in Minneapolis and the reigning champion of the sport, which takes place in a pit of squishy mashed potatoes. “That stuff is like concrete,” said Barone, whose pit name is Steve-O Gratin.
On Thanksgiving, cooks have more refined concerns. Mashed potatoes are a cornerstone of the meal, and even great culinary minds give conflicting advice on how to perfect them. Waxy or floury? Mashed or riced?
Why bother? Having recently mashed 32 pounds of potatoes over a three-day period, I can say that they are good cooked in plain water, in salted water and in water mixed with milk, wine or chicken stock.
They are good made with yellow-fleshed, red-skinned, all-purpose, fingerling, organic, new-dug and supermarket potatoes.
Potatoes mashed the easy way (in a stand mixer) and the hard way (in a ricer) were more or less equally delicious.
First, choose your potato: floury (high in starch, like a thick, brown-skinned baking potato) or waxy (low in starch, like a thin-skinned red, white or yellow potato).
Peeled, cut potatoes performed much better in my laboratory. They cooked more evenly and were less waterlogged than those boiled whole and unpeeled.
The cooking water should be plentiful and salted. Boil until they are very soft; rescue them before they get shaggy around the edges, a sign that they are dissolving in the pot.
Starting with hot, dry potatoes and hot butter emerged as one of the two crucial steps toward mashed potato success. The other was using a good masher.
The best mashers, available from Oxo, Rosle and others, are those with a flat face, a grid pattern and crisp edges where the potato meets the masher.
After mashing, taste. A common cause of dull potatoes is undersalting; a potato can absorb a remarkable amount of salt before it starts to taste seasoned. Be openhanded with salt and butter but stingy with milk, which will flatten out the bright, earthy potato taste.
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RECIPE
Simple mashed potatoes
Time: About 45 minutes
Ingredients
* Salt
* 2 1/2 pounds potatoes (about 6 large potatoes), preferably a combination of russet (baking) potatoes and large Yukon Golds, or all Yukon Golds
* 4 tablespoons butter, more for dotting
* 1/3 cup whole milk
Directions
1. In a large pot, bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil over high heat. Peel and quarter potatoes and keep in cold water until ready to cook. Add potatoes to water and boil about 15 to 20 minutes, until soft; a knife should go in with almost no resistance.
2. In a saucepan or a microwave oven, heat butter and milk together until butter melts and mixture steams. Drain potatoes well and return to pot. Mash hot potatoes until smooth. Lightly mix in about half of hot butter mixture, just until blended. Taste for salt and add more butter mixture until seasoned to your liking.
3. Stop here for fluffy potatoes. For creamy potatoes, keep stirring potato mixture, using a sturdy spoon to press it against sides and bottom of pot. Mix until dense and thick. For whipped potatoes, use a stand mixer to mash hot potatoes just until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add all the butter mixture and salt to taste, pulsing machine in short bursts at medium speed. When light and creamy, stop mixing immediately.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings. Recipe can be doubled, tripled and more.