How to make the best mash

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We had sausage and mash tonight, and this got me thinking about how to make the perfect mash. There are a number of variables:

  • Potatoes. White or red? I think that the kind that stay solid when you boil them are best for mash. We had Desiree tonight, and they worked well. If the spud goes fluffy on the outside it will make a great roast but they're too watery when you mash them.
  • How to cook them. The vitamins are just below the skin. Boiling is the most obvious but also probably the least good for you. Baking them and then mashing the middle gives a good water-free mash. Would steaming them or microwaving work? Chopping the spud into a 1cm^3 cubes does speed up boiling (a tip I knicked from Ready Steady Cook) but makes a more watery mash - if time allows then leave the chunks of spud quite large (about the size for boiled spuds).
  • How to mash. With a masher? Well the other options include a potato ricer or something mechanical. The latter seems a bit risky and over working cooked potato just produces a glutinous mess. I'm sticking with a hand masher.
  • What to add. Milk or cream, butter or spread, pepper? I tend to go for a dash of milk, a knob of butter or Flora (if being healthy) and a few grinds of the pepper mill.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Ah, mash. A food dear to my heart. I prefer mine quite dry (just a splash of milk) but with quite a lot of butter. I also quite like to add a little grated nutmeg and some coarse-ground black pepper. I think quality of potato is as important as type. We've had some bad experiences with Desiree recently, which normally makes a good mash. If you want a really dry mash, say for lamb cakes and the like, boiling the potatoes in their skins and peeling them when they've cooled enough to handle works well.
3 July 2008 at 15:35
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