Yearly, my household has a listing of “should have” dishes for the Thanksgiving desk, and creamy, garlicky mashed potatoes are on the record each time. Starch loaded with butter, cream, and massive garlic taste—what might be higher? 

As universally cherished as garlic mashed potatoes are, they nonetheless may cause hushed arguments within the kitchen. Ought to the feel be extra fluffy or silky, what’s an appropriate quantity of cream and butter, and simply how garlicky ought to the potatoes be?

I like mine to be wealthy and creamy because of loads of butter and heavy cream, a bit peppery, and loaded with candy—not harsh—garlic taste. Sadly many variations are unpleasantly gloppy from waterlogged potatoes, lack garlic taste, or, worse, undergo from an aggressive raw-garlic afterburn. 

To nail down a recipe of good garlic mashed spuds, we requested our take a look at kitchen colleague Julia Levy to determine a components that works each time. They’re particular sufficient for a big vacation meal, however simple sufficient to whip up any evening of the week.

The Key Strategies for Creamy, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes

For candy garlic taste, roast—do not toast—the garlic. Many garlic mashed potato recipes supply fast and environment friendly strategies of incorporating garlic into the mashed potatoes, however these strategies come at a value. Some recipes, for instance, name for sautéing slivers of garlic in oil or butter, which might brown the garlic however usually with the danger of introducing acrid flavors because the garlic scorches within the fats’s excessive warmth. Different recipes have you ever boil the garlic with the potatoes or within the cream to melt it; this removes its harsh edge however does little to develop the garlic’s taste past “cooked”.

In our opinion, there are few substitutes for the candy, advanced taste of slowly roasted garlic (garlic confit is one other method we like, but it surely’s fussier and slower). When roasted, garlic’s sharp edges give technique to a rounded, virtually candied sweetness that’s directly mellow and intense. As soon as the garlic is cool sufficient to deal with, the browned, softened cloves tackle a creamy, paste-like texture and may simply be squeezed out of the skins (squeezing from the basis find yourself) into the potato combination. 

Use yellow potatoes. In the case of mashed potatoes, not all spuds are created equal; some are extremely starchy with a drier, cottony texture, whereas others are way more moist and silky. Yellow potatoes, equivalent to Yukon Gold, fall into the candy spot that exists between these two extremes, starchy sufficient whereas being satiny smooth. They’ve skinny pores and skin, shallow eyes, and creamy, moist flesh that is greatest described as naturally buttery, nutty, and barely candy. Within the potato world, yellow potatoes fall into the “medium starch” class; they’ve simply sufficient starch to take in loads of wealthy cream and butter and keep away from a watery texture, whereas nonetheless producing a splendidly silky consequence.

Skip boiling, and bake the potatoes as an alternative. An excessive amount of water can contribute to gluey, gummy mashed potatoes. Starch granules exist inside all potato cells. In uncooked potatoes, these granules are onerous and tightly packed. Once you boil potatoes—the commonest cooking technique when making mashed—the starch granules soak up water, swell, and finally burst, making a sticky gel. With no fats current at this stage within the course of, there’s nothing to cease that gluey, starchy mess for turning into even stickier as you additional agitate the potatoes throughout mashing.

The easiest way to keep away from waterlogged potatoes? Skip boiling them altogether and roast the potatoes complete as an alternative. This cooks the potatoes absolutely with out introducing further water, leaving the starch obtainable to take in as a lot cream as doable—and with all that fats current, gluiness is far much less more likely to develop.

For this recipe it’s not solely a greater cooking technique for the potatoes, but it surely’s additionally sensible; the potatoes bake till tender on the identical time the garlic roasts proper subsequent to it within the oven. It’s an extended cooking course of, but it surely’s all utterly hands-off.

Keep away from overmixing the potatoes. For super-creamy mashed potatoes, it’s price investing in a potato ricer or meals mill, that are each in a position to flip the cooked potato right into a smooth and clean mash with out an excessive amount of threat of over-mixing (though poor-quality and/or too-small meals mills do run some threat). Should you don’t thoughts a chunkier mash, a handheld potato masher is okay, however you’ll need to be cautious about overmixing. No matter you do, skip the meals processor and stand mixer—until garlicky elastic potatoes sound like a good suggestion to you.