Mashed Potatoes

Method

1. peel8 min
   potato, then cut into chunks of roughly equal size — mixed sizes mean the small pieces disintegrate and waterlog while the large ones are still raw at the core, and no amount of mashing fixes a mash made of both
2. simmer20 min
   cold water start, bare simmer
   potato + water + 2 tsp salt, brought up from cold so the outside and the centre cook at the same rate. Hold it just below a boil; a hard boil batters the chunks apart and the loose starch leaves in the water. Done when a knife slides out with no resistance at all — undercooked potato will not rice, it will smear
3. infuse5 min
   low, steaming not boiling
   milk + heavy cream (+ garlic + bay leaf), warmed. Cold dairy hitting hot potato shocks the swollen starch granules into contracting, and the mash turns tight and pasty. Strain out the aromatics before use
4. cook2 min
   low, uncovered, empty pot
   drained potato returned to the dry pot and shaken until the surfaces go matte and floury — you are driving off boiling water that would otherwise dilute the butter and thin the finished mash
5. mash4 min
   off heat, hot potato
   potato pressed through a ricer or food mill straight back into the warm pot. A ricer separates the cooked cells intact; a blender or beater ruptures them and floods the mix with free amylose, which is exactly the gum that makes gluey mashed potatoes. Work while it is hot — cooled potato resists and needs force, and force is the problem
6. fold3 min
   low heat, gentle
   riced potato + butter, cubed and folded in first and completely, before any liquid. The fat coats the starch and keeps the dairy from soaking into it, which is what gives the mash its silk instead of its paste. Then + warm milk and cream in two or three additions, folding only until it just holds a soft shape — stop before it looks perfectly smooth, because it will loosen as it sits
7. season1 min
   off heat
   + salt + black pepper (+ sour cream + nutmeg), tasted hot. Potato blunts salt more than almost anything else on the stove, so a mash seasoned to taste warm will read flat by the time it reaches the table — push it one pinch past correct. Finish with chives