The Perfect Mashed Potato?

Zazen999

moggylover wrote: »

Try gowing a different variety of spud next year. The popular varieties in the shops (like estima, marfona, etc) are good chippers, not so good for mashing. King Edwards and Maris Piper and Nadine are much better potatoes as all rounders (but are more expensive both as potatoes and seed potatoes). Sometimes the cheaper potatoes are a false economy if you are not a great chip or jacket eater - as that is what the bulk of our commercial spuds appear to be grown for nowadays, that and the fact that they are big croppers compared to the others - but I have a feeling that they crop big by absorbing more water than the better breeds. Sometimes less IS more!

If you grow your own there is another good all rounder called Escort which is emminently suitable for growing organically - but tends to be a bit small again.

This gives some explanation about how to choose your spuds - but I would not agree with ALL of their recommendations.


http://www.britishpotatoes.co.uk/potato-varieties/#allrounders

http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/potato/potato-flavour-type.php

The second link is better, although I would again not agree with all the reommendations, but then it appears that some of them might be okay during a short cropping time, less acceptable for main crop general use.

Personally, I will not buy Estima, Wilja, Romano or Marfona potatoes (as I buy mine by the sack for all round use) and find that they are all inclined to stay hard for ages and then turn to water.

We don't eat chips, nor very much in the way of jackets - so I want my potatoes to boil, mash, roast and wedge for the main part - and pick and choose accordingly.

Saxon makes good mash - not so good for roasties cos it doesn't "fluff" on the outside on par boiling.

God! How anal! I'm even fussy about my spuds!:rolleyes:

All my spuds dissolve before the middles are done, mainly because they are much fresher than shop bought. I grew 10 different types this year.

Next year, it's one early [new] potato, and Kestrel for the mains. Makes the best chips, really slug resistant, can be taken early for new potatoes and keeps well through the winter. Also, I'll grow one with blight resistance, as a fall back on the Kestrel.

Zazen999

[ANAL - I weight my garlics before I plant them to find out how much they have grown when they get harvested] - how sad am I?

foreversomeday

I never use milk for mashed potato as it makes it too sloppy for my taste.

I chop them up really small to boil, either sliced or diced depending on my time/mood! Then drain off the water and leave them in the saucepan so they stay hot. I add lots of butter (or substitute) and sometimes a teaspoonful of mustard, and mash them with a potato masher - although I used to use a fork before we had one, and it was harder work but the potatoes were probably better mashed and less lumpy.

The best type of potato masher I have found by the way is one with criss cross bits rather than one with lines or round holes.

carriebradshaw

I use my food mixer with the beater blades on,like this one pictured below,though this isn't mine





very smooth fluffy mash and not the least bit gluey(did that once with food processor many years ago) I never get lumps now

FairyElephant_2

Thanks Carrie - that was the piece of equipment I was trying to explain!

Mine's a Kenwood one and I've had it for 16 years, still going strong and has been very well used!

Skint_Catt

Trick to getting smooth mash? At the risk of sounding sexist - get a strong man to do it! i'm quite strong myself, but don't have enough arm power to mash brilliantly (though I do tend to get lump free mash ) but my OH (plays drums!) gets it lovely and smooth!

I just add a splash of milk and a knib of marg and sometimes a dairylea triangle or two to the drained boiled pots, then mash away! I use standard white pots but I think Maris Piper are the best mashers.

carriebradshaw

FairyElephant wrote: »

Thanks Carrie - that was the piece of equipment I was trying to explain!

Mine's a Kenwood one and I've had it for 16 years, still going strong and has been very well used!

I just put a pic up in case anypeeps thought I was on about blender or processor. My hand mixer is a James Martin one but it's not fancy by any means and it was cheap to buy,does the job though and it's got dough hooks and a whisk too :T

moggylover

Zazen999 wrote: »

All my spuds dissolve before the middles are done, mainly because they are much fresher than shop bought. I grew 10 different types this year.

Next year, it's one early [new] potato, and Kestrel for the mains. Makes the best chips, really slug resistant, can be taken early for new potatoes and keeps well through the winter. Also, I'll grow one with blight resistance, as a fall back on the Kestrel.

I know what you mean about the freshness, but most of my potates come from the farm shops, and can often be dug the day before I buy - so not much storage comes in to play there.

I only have enough ground to grow a few new potatoes myself (although hope to have another area cleared ready to go for more next year. I suspect that the old potato varieties (i.e. those stored for the winter) will fare better than those that you pick just for the summer use, and I do know that Escort does very well for this, these are quite disease resistant and can be grown organically, and when we cleared the plot for the veggies we planted a big crop of these to help break the ground up during its' first year. I was given the bag of seed potatoes by a neighbour who is an organic farmer, and he recommended them and grew them commercially. I did not have any problems with them turning to mush, even on the first day out of the ground.
Suggest a slightly more gentle simmer helps, or even turning the pan off and allowing them to cook in their own time, also cutting a bit smaller and thus boiling for less time.

I haven't tried Kestrel - found Aran Pilot, and even Maris Peer VERY dissapointing as all rounders. Suspect that if Kestrel is a good chipper then it would not suit us, I prefer the floury textured potatoes for main crop.

moggylover

Zazen999 wrote: »

[ANAL - I weight my garlics before I plant them to find out how much they have grown when they get harvested] - how sad am I?

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

About as bad as my 10 year old who always wants to dig things up to see how they are growing!;)

Loopy_Lobes

I bake the potatoes. I use the flesh for mash and keep the skins for another day. I never have lumps! I usually fill the skins with cheese and chopped ham and grill them - yum!