Old Fashioned Mashed Potatoes for a Crowd
Here's how to make the best, easiest, most consistent old fashioned mashed potatoes for a crowd. Make-ahead friendly, perfect for holidays. It's easy, I promise — just be sure to follow all the tips in the FAQ section of the post for the absolute best results.
Calories: 343kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10 pounds 4.5 kilograms Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 16 tablespoons (224 grams) (2 sticks) really good salted, cultured butter
- 2 ½ cups (591 ml) whole milk
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Fill a very large pot halfway with cold water and two tablespoons of fine sea salt.
- Place potato pieces into the pot as you peel and chop them.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes in a colander.
- Heat the butter and milk together in a small pot over medium-low heat until butter is melted.
- Either press the potatoes through a ricer or food mill back into the pot, or return them to the pot straightaway and use a masher to mash them until smooth.
- Pour in hot buttery milk in a slow stream, stirring to incorporate.
- Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Don't be shy with the seasoning.
Notes
- Yukon Gold potatoes or a similar gold-fleshed potato variety are basically nonnegotiable. They're so cooperative that they take the stress out of the process. Yukon Golds have just the right ratio of creaminess to waxiness to starch to yield unfussy mashed potatoes that everyone will love.
- At the risk of getting a little crazy on you here, if you have a water filter, use filtered water to make your mashed potatoes. For consistency of both taste and tenderness, it removes some of the randomness from your water supply. If this isn't an easy option, don't worry about it — but just sayin.
- Really for every purpose, and especially in mashed potatoes, it's worth seeking out a really delicious butter. So much of the industrial butter in. the U.S. is white and bland. We love Kerrygold salted butter, which comes from grass-fed cows and is cultured, both of which contribute so much deliciousness that you'll never go back. Plus, it doesn't come with a high price tag.
- Whole milk gives mashed potatoes just the right consistency, so I like to use a good organic whole milk rather than a lower-fat version. This isn't just about liquid: the fat in whole milk helps prevent the starch in the potatoes from getting gummy. (This is mostly butter's job, but whole milk plays a supporting role.) As for nondairy milks, mashed potatoes aren't really the place for them taste- or texture-wise. If you want or need a rockin nondairy mashed potatoes recipe, try this one.
- Fine sea salt and good old freshly ground black pepper will yield the perfect mashed potatoes everyone's expecting. White pepper is invisible but has a very different taste from black pepper, so it's up to you whether to use it. I don't.
- Mashed potatoes made this way do beautifully made up to a few days in advance, and as leftovers kept for up to a week. Once cooled, simply store in an airtight container in the fridge, then reheat in batches in the microwave, stirring every few minutes to distribute the heat.
- You can even freeze them for up to a year, either in large quantities or portioned using an ice cream scoop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, and transferred to a zip-top freezer bag once frozen solid. Defrost in the fridge and reheat per the instructions above.
- Protip: If your mashed potato leftovers outpace your gravy leftovers, make our vegetarian gravy to go with the rest. Believe it or not, you'll be in the company of thousands of people doing just that in the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Nutrition
Calories: 343kcal | Carbohydrates: 51.4g | Protein: 7.1g | Fat: 13g | Fiber: 6g