Can I leave the skin on yellow potatoes for mash?

Tasha
  • Posted by: Tasha
  • June 10, 2014
  • 32712 views
  • 7 Comments

7 Comments

Dinner D. June 11, 2014
Ina Garten has a recipe using Yukon Gold potatoes that are cut into 1" chunks with skin
on. Start a pot of cold water to boil with 2T of salt. When boiling add potatoes and simmer without lid. Then there is the butter hot milk and buttermilk. A bit off heaven in every bite. My go to mashers!
 
mstv June 11, 2014
Also, I should mention I don't use a lot of extra water, just enough to cover the potatoes and I cook them with a lid on.
 
Kristen W. June 11, 2014
Sorry, mstv, not rstv!
 
mstv June 11, 2014
Thanks for your feedback! I have tried it both ways and personally I find that as long as you simmer the potatoes lightly (not boiling them really hard) that it works just fine cut into chunks and cooks much faster but I will admit I do follow a lot of advice from CI as well (just not on this point!). In fact, just made Yukon gold mashed potatoes last night with smoked turkey enchiladas and frijoles a la olla to recreate a meal from a recently closed Tex Mex restaurant in Portland, Oregon.
 
Kristen W. June 11, 2014
Respectfully, rstv, I read in Cook's Illustrated years ago that cutting the potatoes before boiling causes a lot of the starch to leach out into the water, which can negatively affect texture. Since reading that, I never cut my potatoes be
before boiling, and I find that the yellow potato skin is thin enough that it breaks up quite easily from the mashing. But, as I once told a non-cooking friend who was making mashed potatoes for the first time, it's pretty hard to scre up potatoes, salt, and butter no matter what you do!
 
mstv June 11, 2014
I would just cube the potatoes (1 inch or so) before boiling so that none of the skin pieces are too big.
 

Voted the Best Reply!

Susan W. June 10, 2014
Sure. I love the chewy texture they add. Just make sure you cut all the eyes and any skin with a green tint out.
 
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