The recipe is a combination between "simple is best" and "if some is good, more is better, and too much is just about enough..." There are just four ingredients:
Potatoes Some Use white or red potatoes. Do not use gold or russets.
Butter More (That's butter, not margarine!)
Black Pepper Too much Use fresh-ground
Salt To taste
Peel the potatoes, cover with water in cook pot, and boil until cooked (fork passes through the potato easily). Drain and mash with a mixer, adding butter, salt, and pepper. Taste often to be sure they are OK and don't need more of something. Keep grinding the fresh black pepper right up until the time you're ready to stick the forkful in your mouth; I seriously do no think you can get too much black pepper in these.
Do not add anything else. I don't care how your mother made them, how Chef Richard make them, what you've read in Good Housekeeping, etc. The whole key here is basic potatoes, no additives, and too much butter.
These will get you rave reviews at the Thanksgiving table or any other meal featuring mashed potatoes (pork and 'kraut, OSR and gravy, sausage and rice balls...)
THE DARK UNDERSIDE
Mom has shuddered every time I have made these mashed potatoes for years. Now that I've taken an interest in nutrition as well as eating, I understand why. Let's take a look at this recipe:
A 220 g serving of potato contains about 205 calories, 187 from carbs, 2 from fat, and 15 from protein, so 91.4% from carbs, 1.2% from fat, and 7.5% from protein. The protein is complete with the lowest essential amino acid being Leucine at 109%. So your basic potato is a very good, low fat, source of carbs with a not-insignificant contribution of balanced, complete protein - a great fundamental building block for a nutritious meal.
Now, take the mashed potatoes that were so well received when we got together last Thanksgiving. We used red potatoes, 7 1/2 pounds, and added 1 pound of butter, so now you know about the right proportion for "some" and "more". Now, a 220 g serving contains 366 calories, 165 from carbs, 186 from fat, and 14 from protein, or 45.1% from carbs, 51.0% from fat, and 3.9% from protein. The butter has essentially doubled the calories, basically all from fat. Being butter fat, the omega-6/omega-3 ratio is in the wrong direction (~7.5/1). And of course, if you go back for seconds, it just makes it worse.
So, if you are young and active and can stand a couple hundred extra fat calories in your diet now and then, these are the mashed potatoes to make. I think for me, I will have to retire this recipe except for very special occasions and even then I will have to eat in moderation.
Lindsey
I confess that for several years I fell for the false promises of "fancier" mashed potatoes. And was always disappointed. After last Thanksgiving, when Will, for the first time ate mashed potatoes, proving that he is indeed my son, I came to my senses and reverted back to Dad's method. I even stopped pre-melting the butter to avoid having it cool off the potatoes. The results have been several of the best batches of mashed potatoes I've made in years.
ReplyDeleteI learned an important part of this recipe last night. Do not overcook the potatoes! That sort of "boxed mashed potatoes", too-fluffy texture of some mashed potatoes is due, I think, to the potatoes being cooked for too long and absorbing too much water.
ReplyDeleteGood point about not overcooking.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I knew they weren't good nutritionally. I mean come on. I made them the first time this past winter and was astounded at how much butter I had to put in to get it right, but I mean shucks, sometimes I eat brownies with ice cream too, not because it is has such a great carb to protein ratio, but because it's so darn delicious.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I'm the only one allowed to make mashers in my minute circle of friends with which I sometimes share meals.
So, autumn is upon us, beautiful clear, cool day in PA today leading me to a hankerin' for sauerkraut and pork, which always comes with mashed potatoes, of course. I used red new potatoes from the garden and followed the recipe except NO BUTTER!!! Hey, they were good. Not the best in the world, maybe, but if you can get good new potatoes, maybe you do not need to go overboard on the butter for daily use. For Thanksgiving, I think the original recipe holds... But this does put my old friend the potato back in the running as a very nutritious food.
ReplyDelete