The Best Way to Cook Mashed Potatoes Breaks All the Rules
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Mashed potatoes are a classic for a reason. They’re not just a key part in the Thanksgiving ensemble, they’re also the creamy, dreamy base for Swedish-style meatballs and classic pot roast. They’re the comforting side dish that accompanies cool weather heavy-hitters like glazed meatloaf and roasted chicken. In short, they’re more than a potato preparation; they’re a staple.
For a dish with so few ingredients and two main techniques (boil and mash), there are a surprising number of ways to prepare mashed potatoes. Good mashed potatoes should be creamy and rich without being too heavy. They shouldn’t be super dense, and they should have a bit of fluff to them. With that in mind, what’s the best way to make mashed potatoes? Is it better to boil the potatoes or cook them in an Instant Pot? Can you put them in the slow cooker, or cut the prep time way down and zap them in the microwave? Here at the top of fall and the beginning of holiday feast season, I set out to answer these questions and figure out what the best way is to make mashed potatoes.
For creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes with very little extra work, cooking potatoes in a steamer basket is the way to go. A quick rinse in the middle of cooking removes extra starch that might cause gumminess, and cooking the potatoes in steam keeps them from retaining extra moisture and becoming waterlogged.
A Few Notes on Methodology
The simplicity of mashed potatoes hides a glut of components and techniques — including but not limited to potato variety, mashing tool, cooking vessel, seasonings, dairy products — that have the potential to change the end result. In order to keep this test from spiraling out of control, I had to choose some strict parameters.
This testing focused very specifically on figuring out the best way to cook the potatoes for the best mash. With that in mind, I held all other factors in the mash constant, including dairy, seasoning, and mashing technique.
The potatoes. I used Yukon Gold potatoes for all of my testing. I did not include peels in the final mash. I purchased all of the potatoes on the same day from the same store.
The dairy. When mashing the potatoes for each method, I used unsalted butter and half-and-half. Mashed potato recipes call for milk, heavy cream, and half-and-half in their ingredient lists, so using half-and-half here is the perfect middle ground for creaminess.
The mashing tool. I mashed all of the potatoes by hand with a handheld potato masher, even if the recipe called for another mashing method.
The seasonings. All of the mashed potatoes were seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Any additional spices — like garlic or herbs — were eliminated for fairness and clarity.
The testing. I tested all seven methods on the same day, tasting them as I completed each test, and again side by side.
Ratings. I rated the mashed potatoes on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being light, fluffy mashed potatoes that were not dense or gummy.
Method #1: Slow Cooker
Rating: 4/10
About this method: This all-in-one method calls for you to add butter, dairy, and seasonings along with peeled and diced potatoes to a slow cooker, then cook everything together on high for 4 to 5 hours. At the end of that rather long cook time, I simply mashed the potatoes right in the slow cooker.
Results: I had high hopes for this one. The hands-off approach to making mashed potatoes seemed like a great idea, especially if you’re making them as part of a large holiday meal like Thanksgiving. Having one less dish pulling at your attention is certainly welcome. However, they do take quite a long time (the potatoes were still quite firm at the four-hour mark, so I had to cook them for the full five hours), and thus require significant advanced planning.
The resulting mashed potatoes were fine. They almost had a little bit of a mealy texture, but they were certainly mashed potatoes, and no one is mad at that. The real reason I can’t recommend this technique is because, by adding in the milk or cream in the beginning, you lose the ability to adjust the texture. If too much liquid went in, tough. Perhaps if you’ve made this several times, you would have a better sense of how much liquid to put in initially to get your desired potato consistency. As a first-timer, I did not have that advantage, and the final potatoes were looser than I would’ve liked.
Method #2: Oven
Rating: 5/10
About this method: This method forgoes boiling entirely in favor of roasting the potatoes with the skin on in the oven. I poked holes in each potato with a fork and roasted them on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet until tender, about one hour. After letting the baked potatoes cool slightly, I cut them in half lengthwise and scooped the flesh into a large bowl and mashed them with a potato masher. Next, I stirred the mashed potatoes together with salt and pepper and a mixture of half-and-half and melted unsalted butter that I had warmed on the stovetop.
Results: These potatoes were tasty, if a little rich. Where this method really falls short is that it feels like more work than making mashed potatoes the “regular” way on the stovetop, even though you’re essentially doing the same thing. And I don’t really need another dish taking up precious oven space during the holidays.
Method #3: Stovetop (Water and Milk)
Rating: 6/10
About this method: This technique is a twist on the traditional stovetop method. Instead of boiling potatoes in water, I boiled them in a mixture of half water and half whole milk, plus 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Once the potatoes were fork-tender, I drained and mashed them in the warm saucepan they cooked in with a hand masher. Next, I added melted butter, stirred until combined, then added warmed half-and-half, salt and pepper, and gently stirred until well combined.
Results: I really wanted all of this extra dairy to make a difference. The idea of cooking the potatoes in a mixture of dairy and water does seem like it might impart extra creaminess, but I was skeptical. Unfortunately my fears turned out to be founded, because tasting these potatoes side by side with the other stovetop potatoes (for which I used the same recipe), I couldn’t discern any real difference. They were both very tasty, but at the end of the day, cooking the potatoes in dairy just seemed like a waste of milk and cream when I could have cooked them in water and gotten equally delicious potatoes.
Method #4: Microwave
Rating: 7/10
About this method: For this shockingly simple method, I peeled the potatoes and sliced them into 1/4-inch-thick slices before adding them to a large microwave-safe bowl with 2 tablespoons of water and covering it tightly with plastic wrap. I then microwaved them until fork-tender, which took about 15 minutes. Next, I mashed the potatoes with a handheld potato masher right in the bowl before stirring in half-and-half, butter, salt, and pepper.
Results: I was shocked at how well these turned out. The microwave has a bad reputation and is looked down on as a tool for accomplishing actual cooking tasks (rather than just as an appliance for reheating). However, for a task like cooking potatoes, it has no significant downside. It was fast, super easy, and it freed up the stovetop and the oven, which, when your kitchen has become a Thanksgiving factory, could potentially be a big help. The only reason these potatoes didn’t wind up higher in the rankings? They were just slightly gummier than some other methods. Overall, though, if you’re looking to make mashed potatoes quickly, this is a good option.
Method #5: Instant Pot
Rating: 8/10
About this method: For this method, I peeled and quartered the potatoes before adding them to the steamer rack of an Instant Pot with 1 cup of cold water. I then pressure-cooked them on high for eight minutes. After venting and releasing the steam, I drained the potatoes and mashed the cooked potatoes in the warm inner pot of the Instant Pot with a hand masher. I then added room-temperature butter, stirring gently until combined, followed by warm half-and-half, salt, and pepper.
Results: When preparing the potatoes for these tests, I mashed them all for about the same amount of time. I didn’t set a timer, but I was very cognizant of not going overboard because that’s what leads to gummy potatoes. These potatoes mashed very easily and quickly in comparison to other tests. Other methods generally say something like “cook potatoes until easily pierced with a knife.” These potatoes, though, are cooked to within an inch of their lives under pressure. I think the very intense and thorough cooking just went further than the other potatoes had, which made them very easy to mash; the resulting potatoes were noticeably smoother than other tests.
The final texture was light and smooth, though a bit drier and thicker than the winning method. It also gets points for ease and speed. The potatoes were ready from start to finish in about 20 minutes, with the most time-consuming part of the process being peeling the potatoes. The only real downside (and why this method wound up losing a few points) is that not everyone has an Instant Pot. I had to borrow one from a neighbor for this testing, but if you do have one, I think this is a great method.
Method #6: Stovetop (Water)
Rating: 9/10
About this method: For this classic method, I followed the same recipe as I did for the stovetop method with water and milk. I boiled the potatoes whole, starting in well-salted cold water. When the potatoes were tender, I drained and peeled them, mashed them in the warm saucepan they were cooked in with a handheld masher, and then stirred in melted butter, warmed half-and-half, salt, and pepper.
Results: This is the platonic ideal of mashed potato cookery. The standard method that we most often employ when making mashed potatoes at home earned its place here: It made some of the best mashed potatoes in this lineup. The finished potatoes had a lovely level of creaminess without being too rich and overall were a very good balance between light and smooth — what I think of as a classic mashed potato texture.
Method #7: Steamer Basket
Rating: 10/10
About this method: This method employs a relatively simple twist on the stovetop method. Instead of cooking the potatoes directly in water, you’re steaming them in a steamer basket on the stovetop. I first peeled the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch chunks, then added them to a metal steamer basket set inside a large pot with enough water to create steam, but not enough to touch the potatoes. After 10 minutes of cooking, I transferred the potatoes to the sink and rinsed them under cold water until they were no longer hot. I then returned the potatoes, still in the steamer basket, to the stovetop and continued to cook them until they were tender, about 10 minutes more. After draining the pot, I returned the cooked potatoes to it and stirred in melted butter, salt, pepper, and warmed half-and-half.
Results: This method follows in a long Cook’s Illustrated tradition of being a bit of extra work that really paid off in the end; you’re taking something that’s already good and making it spectacular. The mashed potatoes were light, fluffy, and balanced. Rinsing them halfway through cooking prevented the potatoes from becoming gummy and resulted in the best texture of any of my tests. While this method is a bit more hands-on than the traditional stovetop method, steaming and rinsing doesn’t add a ton of extra work, and the payoff is more than worth it in my opinion.
Overall Key Takeaways
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The methods I liked the least were the ones that attempted to fundamentally change the process of making mashed potatoes (bake the potatoes in the oven, cook them with dairy, etc). The methods that rose to the top, on the other hand, took what was already working (cooking potatoes on the stovetop in water) and tweaked it to make it the best it could be.
For the best potatoes, use a gentle hand. Mashed potatoes become gummy the more you handle them — that’s why so many recipes call for using a potato ricer or food mill for the best potato texture. If you’re old-fashioned like me and want to use a hand masher, be gentle both when mashing and stirring in butter and dairy to avoid your potatoes from becoming tough, dense, and gummy.
Further Reading
We Asked 3 Chefs to Name the Best Ice Cream, and They All Said the Same Thing
The One Cookware Brand That Gordon Ramsay Can’t Stop Talking About
