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.
Let them sit for three to five minutes, then mash. If you like your potatoes chunky, Foster advises using a masher (for more lumps, use the wavy-lined style masher; for fewer lumps, choose a grid-shaped one). For smooth potatoes with a whipped texture, use a hand mixer, which incorporates air into the dish.
You can do nearly everything — boil, peel, and mash; stir in milk and salt — up to two days ahead. Before serving, reheat. Adding butter at the last minute makes them taste freshly mashed.
How Long Can Boiled Potatoes Sit Before Mashing? If you want to boil your potatoes in advance of mashing them, leave them sitting in about 1-2 inches of the cooking water for up to 2 hours. Then when it's time to mash them, you can bring the water to a simmer to reheat the potatoes.
Pour cooked potatoes into a colander or use a slotted spoon to remove large pieces of potato from the hot water and place them in a bowl. If your recipe calls for cooled potatoes, run them under cold water or submerge them in an ice bath to speed the cooling process.
Boiled Potatoes Time Guide
Peeled, cubed potatoes cut into small, one-inch pieces should cook in 10 to 12 minutes, once the water reaches a boil. Larger pieces (about 2 inches across) may need longer, around 15 minutes. Medium whole potatoes should boil 20 minutes before they'll be tender.
Generally, it's best to put hot food and leftovers into the fridge within two hours of being cooked. After this time, bacteria can start to grow and transform your delicious meal into a bout of food poisoning waiting to happen.
Yes, you can leave potatoes on the counter and at room temperature but ensure that don't let them over 3-4 hours. After baking them, ensure to serve potatoes immediately. Besides this, it's recommended to store your mashed potatoes in the refrigerator.
The Mistake: Overworking the Potatoes with a Food Processor, Blender or Mixer. Too much — or too vigorous — mashing will produce gluey potatoes. Your best tool is an old-fashioned masher, fork, ricer or food mill.
It's important to drain the potatoes immediately after cooking. Don't leave them to sit in the liquid while you finish preparing the rest of the meal. Potatoes retain their heat quite well, so putting them back in the pot after draining and putting a lid on them will keep them warm until you're ready to serve.
For good measure: Be careful not to overcook potatoes you plan to mash, because the starch cells will break down and create a sticky mash. Cook them just until a thin-bladed knife meets a bit of resistance. It is also important to drain the potatoes well after cooking to prevent gumminess.
Mashed potatoes, like other starchy dishes that are made with dairy (think: creamy casseroles, macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes), can develop a dry, gluey texture when reheated for too long, or at a temperature that's too high.
Tips for the Best Mashed Potatoes
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.
When too much starch gets released, the potatoes become gummy, gluey, and unappetizing. Overworking the potatoes can happen in a couple ways: either by simply handling them too much, or by using a food processor, blender, or similar tool, which mixes the potatoes too aggressively.
One of the starch molecules in potatoes is called amylose, which is responsible for making mashed potatoes "gluey" and pasty. Rinsing or soaking cut raw potatoes helps to wash away a very small amount of amylose.
Cover the potatoes with water and season with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of the butter, hot milk, sour cream, and salt to taste; mash thoroughly with a potato masher until very creamy.
The boiling point
Cubed spuds will take around 15 minutes where larger chunks or whole new potatoes will be 20-25 minutes. To check when they are done, pierce the potatoes with the tip of a knife to see how much resistance there is. If it goes in easily, you're done!
A large pot or container of food that is hot should not be placed in the refrigerator or freezer. The hot food can raise the temperature inside the refrigerator/freezer which can be a risk for food already in the appliance.
If your recipe calls for cold potatoes, you can run the potatoes under cold water or dunk them in an ice water bath to cool them down more quickly.
Cover the pot with a lid and let simmer until fork-tender, about 10-15 minutes for small and/or cubed potatoes or 20-25 minutes for large potatoes. Drain and cool. Drain potatoes in a colander. To rapidly cool potatoes for recipes that call for cooled potatoes, you may submerge them in an ice bath.
Some people may prefer to peel the potatoes before boiling, but we would recommend you leave the skins on. This ensures that the nutrients and flavours are not lost during cooking and you get all those lovely vitamins too.
Potato water is the water that potatoes have been boiled in. The potatoes release their starchy goodness into the water as they are cooked. The potato water can then be used as a substitute for milk and it makes your bread deliciously moist. As well, it can be used as a thickener that is naturally gluten-free.