How do you like your mashed potatoes?

Butter, whole milk, salt, fresh ground pepper.

R1 soft, chunky, buttery....that is a list of ingredients not a response to the question.

chunky

I like them stiff, consisiting mostly of potato, not so much liquid or butter. So: five pounds potatoes, about a third cup butter, about a half cup milk. Don't want them so thin as to dissolve into a liquid mess when topped with gravy or butter.

Besides, they have to hold their shape so I can make potato volcanoes with the leftovers. Mounds of potatoes sauteed in a saucepan with butter, a little chopped green onion. Form a crater in the top of each mound and fill with shredded cheese. Briefly cover pan to melt cheese, so the volcanoes have browned bottoms and are oozing molten cheese. Yum.

Drowning in brown gravy.

Don't eat them - full of carbs.

Whipped and smooth

Somewhat chunky. I use Yukon Gold potatoes 99% of the time, unpeeled. I mash them using a masher, adding cream, butter, salt, and pepper. Sometimes I'll substitute sour cream, cheddar, or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Depends on what's in the fridge.

I don't like the pureed / food milled consistency much.

The real question is: do you make an indentation on top of your serving of mashed potatoes as a we’ll to hold the gravy?

Americans from the Midwest and South do; those in the northeast don’t. I don’t know about other regions of the country.

I don't make an indentation, r9, but that's mainly because I don't usually eat them with gravy. If I did, I would. I'm in the northeast, FWIW.

On a plate.

I like mash potatoes with hummus, chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon.

I've been eating baked potatoes more these days. When they come out of the oven, I cut them in half, salt them, butter them, cut them bite-sized with a sharp knife, then top them with sour cream. If I have chili, that goes on before the sour cream, and I leave out the butter.

I like boiled potatoes mashed a bit with a fork with butter and salt.

[quote]Last night I was taken out to a French restaurant and had a super buttery potato puree, very liquid, not soup but quite soft. Just delicious.

You were eating vichyssoise

I like half potatoes, half butternut squash, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a stick of butter and some milk.

I also have gone to the unpeeled Yukon Gold potatoes. I sometimes also throw in some peeled garlic cloves into the water when I boil the potatoes. Then I smash the lot with a hand smasher. I add a bit of sour cream, butter salt and pepper (fresh ground of course). I only add milk if it is too dry, but that is rare. Then serve with really good gravy.

Yes I know they are rich and loaded with calories and carbs, but I make them only for holidays when I'm entertaining.

I use small red potatoes unpeeled sometimes I add avocado and bacon sometimes plain with roasted garlic.

In Germany we call it Kartoffelbrei and the key ingredient is very good potatoes (just drive to the farmer and pick them up there). Add butter and milk (or cream, but we usually use milk) and salt, with nutmeg at the end. Or just drizzle nutmeg on the plate after a serving of Kartoffelbrei. Definitely no gravy, nobody would ever do that here. Maybe roasted onions (onion rings)?

R19 of course in Germany gravy is used.

At my local butcher they make the meatballs with gravy and sever potatoes with it.

Berlin has plenty of gravy, sorry that you do not.

I don't really like them, and the really soft ones with no texture but mush are disgusting to me. I prefer texture, some discernable bits of potato at least but preferably chunky, and some flavor: butter, roasted garlic, parmesan or a good cheddar, chives...something.

Plain or simply with butter and cream leans a bit vile. And anything called gravy makes me wince.

R20 But we never put grave on mashed potatoes like the Americans do.

I like them mashed with heavy cream. Sometimes with some sauteed garlic, depending on the meal. Season with S&P. I don't mind if they're a little chunky, like me.

As colcannon. Add spring onion and cabbage. Seasoning and butter

Not to derail the thread, but I'd be very interested to learn how others actually 'mash' the potatoes. I've done some research about this, but there seems to be much difference of opinion about what works. Most experts seem to think that using a food processor, for example, ruins them, because of how it breaks down the starch.

In your tiny part of Germany R22 maybe not. In Berlin there are a lot of sauces and yes gravies put on mashed potatoes exactly the same as in the US. Clearly you need to get out more. Here königsberger klopse are often served as a sundae. The potatoes are put into a bowl with meatballs and gravy cascading down the sides surrounded by red cabbage.

R25 I use a fork or a potato masher. Use a hand mixer if you want them really smooth.

Exactly R25. The sharp blades of a food processor cut open the starch cells and then your mashed potatoes are all gluey.

OP, is GermanGayGuy your troll?

Also, OP, took you out to a French restaurant? Was it a date? And did you present hole in return?

R26 Please post a pic!

Indoor dining at a French restaurant? What universe?

R29 I doubt it. He just seems to be a small town boy with little knowledge of the world outside of his sphere. The fact that he thinks no one in the country puts gravy on potatoes is proof of his naivete. I did attempt to befriend him via email but he got quickly inappropriate wanting to know how men men I have fucked in Berlin. This is not a question for someone who is trying to be friendly unless it is on grindr.

R32 What are you talking about?

No one ever stated the dining was indoors. OP here and we ate outdoors in the terraced garten out back.

Chunky, salty, peppery, buttery.

Well, r33, how many guys [italic]have[/italic] you fucked in Berlin?

Yukon gold potatoes, boil them with garlic cloves in the water.

Mash them with the garlic, butter, salt, black pepper and add a little drippings from when I bake my turkey thighs.

I like them thick, so I boil and drain the potatoes, use extra virgin olive olive oil instead of butter, use sour cream instead of milk, add some minced garlic and salt and pepper to taste, and mash them by hand.

R33 = Prisspot

r25 I mash by hand, I don't use the traditional hand potato masher, I use a hand held pastry blender (at link) to mash and then mix around with a wooden spoon.

In the trash.

R33 I just wanted to make conversation! Didn't you say that you don't like potatoes and that they fill you up? Why are you writing in a thread about mashed potatoes?

r42

A better question is why are you responding to it.

R42 I never once stated that I never ever ate a potato, only that is not something I eat often.

The reason I began the thread is apparent in the first post I made. I had some mashed potatoes that were delicious and unlike what I had tasted before. That made me curious as to how others prepare and enjoy them.

One does not need a steady diet of potatoes to learn the habits of others.