If you skimp on the butter and cream, the side dish will suffer as a result, turning out unappealingly dry. If this occurs, the outlet recommends correcting course with more fat: Adding more liquid in the form of melted butter, extra-virgin olive oil, cream, or full-fat milk.
Fix them: Scoop the lumpy potatoes into a pan and add a splash of dairy — cream, half-and-half, milk, or sour cream. Cook over low heat, stirring and mashing until smooth. You may need to add a bit more dairy as you go to smooth out those lumps.
Here's how to do it: For every pound of potatoes in your mash, drizzle 1 tablespoon of melted butter over the dish and fold it gently into the potatoes. If the mash is still too gluey for your liking, repeat the process with another tablespoon of butter.
Keep Your Potatoes Hot
If you want a truly creamy taste and texture, you can't let the potatoes cool before mashing—you want to start getting busy with them as soon as possible after they've been boiled and drained.
Dry mashed potatoes don't contain enough fat
And, according to Food Republic, mashed potatoes do not take well to "light" preparations. If you skimp on the butter and cream, the side dish will suffer as a result, turning out unappealingly dry.
Start cooking the potatoes in cold water: This ensures that the potatoes cook evenly. Otherwise, if you start with hot or boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes cook and soften while the middles are still hard and crunchy.
Too much whipping (or mashing) will give you sticky — not fluffy — mashed potatoes. Make the best of it and turn them into cheesy mashed potato cups: Mix the potatoes with grated cheddar and an egg, then scoop the mixture into lightly greased muffin cups.
Add a Thickening Agent
This is the most common, and perhaps the simplest way, to thicken mashed potatoes. You can use what you have on hand: Flour, cornstarch, or powdered milk are all solid options that are probably already in your pantry.
Luckily, there's an easy way to do this: Don't overwork your potatoes. As The Kitchn explains, potatoes will release starch when they're mixed and mashed. Once there is too much starch in your mashed potato mixture, the texture will quickly turn from fluffy to gummy.
Choose wrong and your pretty much guarantee either lumps or gluey potatoes. And no amount of gravy can cover that up. The classic russet potato, with its slightly wrinkly brown skin and multi-purpose texture is a good one for mashed potatoes. You might describe the texture as mealy, as opposed to firm.
The most ubiquitous variety, russets, will mash smoothly and readily absorb whatever delicious additions you incorporate, whether you go with the classic butter and cream combination or mix things up with sour cream or even roasted garlic and olive oil.
Put them in a deep casserole or soufflé dish — even a Dutch oven will do — and store in the fridge overnight. Warm them up in the oven the next day, uncovered, with a little butter on top. The extra moisture will evaporate and you'll have creamy potatoes.
Although they seem straightforward, following a few key tips will ensure mashed potato success. Always start cooking potatoes in cold water and mash them while still warm.
There's no other way to get that fluffy consistency. Milk straight out of the fridge will cool down otherwise piping-hot potatoes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan before incorporating it into your mash. When you melt butter on the stove, its milk solids and fat separate.
They absorb liquids brilliantly, which is why they mash so well. But when you boil them in water, the liquid they are absorbing is just that, water, which can make for a less flavorful mash. By boiling the potatoes in salted milk, they are absorbing creaminess and seasoning, which makes them inherently more flavorful.
To thicken runny mashed potatoes with a thickening agent, add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, flour, or powdered milk to the potatoes.
Tip #3: Don't Overcook or Undercook the Potatoes
If they're undercooked, you'll have pockets of crispy potato chunks-—a big no-no for classic fluffy mashed potatoes. If you overcook them they disintegrate and your potatoes will be soupy.
As with pasta water, there's a reason to liberally salt the water in which the potatoes will cook: As the starches in potatoes warm up, they open up and absorb water (and salt if you season the water). When they're finished cooking, the cells close off.
"The less water you use to cover the potatoes, the more starch in the water." That starch gives finished mashed potatoes a sticky, grainy texture. Water sabotages potatoes in another way, Ivady warns. When boiled potatoes are not fully drained, resulting mashed potatoes are loose and bland.
They can sit for an hour, or two, like this, Foster says. When you are ready to continue, set the pot over low heat and the simmering water will heat the potatoes back up so you can mash them. Mashing with the wrong tool. Once you've got hot potatoes, you're almost ready to mash.
The boiling point
The most important part here is that you use cold water instead of boiled – if you boil the water first, the outside will cook faster than the inside resulting in an uneven texture. Cubed spuds will take around 15 minutes where larger chunks or whole new potatoes will be 20-25 minutes.
Smaller potatoes (like red gold) will cook faster whole — about 15-20 minutes in boiling water. Larger potatoes (like russet) take a little more time — about 20-30 minutes.
Restaurants prepare the potatoes ahead by boiling and mashing just the potato, then just before serving, it is mixed into boiling cream (or milk or even broth or a combination thereof) to reheat it and make it nice and creamy.