Mr. L's Mashed Potatoes

These potatoes are so very flavorful. I may have overdone the dairy portion compared to the number of potatoes I was using, but it was also delicious, it was impossible to mind! My guest couldn't handle the intact peppercorns, so I would crush them before serving to her the next time. Regardless, she wanted to take the leftovers home with her. It was slightly difficult and a little sad to watch her isolate the peppercorns, but a delight to see her love the dish so much!

By far the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten. Anyone who has them at one of my dinner parties asks for the recipe. Try this on top of Rita Konig's recipe for shepherd's pie and you will think you've died and gone to heaven.

This is THE go to mashed potato recipe. Accept no substitutes. I've been making this recipe since I found it on this site years ago. It pares perfectly with a steak or grilled/baked chicken. I use the best peppercorns I have and add fresh chives from the garden (when available). Make sure that you remove the Rosemary before boiling the potatoes. You don't want the rosemary in the mash. If you don't have sour cream, you can sub cream cheese. This is a fantastic way to make mashed potatoes. Don't go too heavy on the garlic.

My hat is off to Mr. L. Godspeed, sir. Salute! May the wind always be at your back.

So sad, I basically turned this into potato taffy on accident by using a hand mixer, and mixing too long. :( I'm sure it would have been great otherwise

Love this recipe. I substituted whipping cream for for the buttermilk and forgot to put in the peppercorns and it still turned out great. I used roasted garlic cloves and added along with the salt and pepper when mashing. Will definitely make again.

If you Google best mashed potatoes you get 26,100,100 results. Of course Goople (intentional misspelling - becoming less of a fan) will limit your viewing pleasure to only the first 1,000 or so.

It's a nice recipe, and a variation I've fiddled with at some time or another in the last 50 or so years.

I tinker with potatoes quite a bit. Sometimes I use a potato ricer, most of the time I use my hand masher if I'm not using the ricer. It's a trusty gadget my mother bought in 1948 and to this day it still works as good as the day it was new when she bought it.

I might add that the stainless steel sieve, two pronged fork, ladle and spatula are still looking as good and working as well as when they were new too. That's at least 66 years because I don't have any idea of their true fabrication date - quality today is a sham.

Some Michelin Star Chefs use much higher ratio of butter than normal recipes do. Here's a decent example of a technique I dabbled with many times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRV05u4d70 My variation is that I cube the room temp butter in smaller chunks (it's faster w/less stirring) and incorporate it with a wooden spoon. Then, I finish with a whisk.

I live in Mexico. The stores here carry a Crema de vaca (heavy cream) that's not like the heavy cream you buy in the states that pours like a thick liquid. This cream comes out of the bottle about as thick as Jell-O cook and serve vanilla pudding - there's no pour you have to shake it pretty hard to get it out or use a spoon.

Sometimes I'll throw in some whole cloves of garlic into the boiling water than when the potatoes are done the garlic is very soft. When I have company, I pass the very soft garlic through a garlic press to get rid of the outer skin of the garlic. It puree's more easily. Sometimes I roast garlic in the oven.

The only time I ever measure anything is when I'm baking because it's more chemistry than anything else.

Sometimes I use good old Best Foods (Hellman's I think) mayonnaise or sour cream or even a small quantity of avocado. Or, fresh Basil or roasted caramelized onions or a pinch of mustard powder or egg yolks, grated parmesan or Monterrey jack, mozzarella ... you name it I've put it in there. Heck I even throw a tablespoon of Skippy creamy peanut butter in there when the mood hits.

Where I live Butter Milk is hard to come by so I when I make butter from scratch I use the butter milk for biscuits or potatoes. Yukon gold are also hard to come by as well.

Bottom line, there is NO BEST ANYTHING! If you LOVE the wonderful, fabulous, super satisfying, almighty Potato, then mix what you will into your mash as it suits you.

Sometimes just the simple butter and milk w/a little salt and pepper addition is just what the Doc ordered.

Delicious! Love the gentle hint of rosemary combined with the spicy peppercorns. I used a little less than the full amount of pepper and only three medium sized garlic cloves. The potatoes had a wonderful peppery bite and a subtle background note of garlic - just right for my taste.

We love Mr. L's mashed potatoes. I made them last night with a rib roast and they were perfect. Thank you. This will be my new recipe for scrumpttuous mash.

Delicious, but any garlic flavor was completely lost. Next time I'm going to try pan roasting the garlic to bring out more flavor. Had to add more sour cream as well (I used low fat) as the potatoes came out a bit dry.

These are my new favorite mashed potatoes! I served them on Thanksgiving, where they received, unanimously, rave reviews. Plus, the cooking water is so fragrant . . . . It's just lovely in bread. ;o)

hello! we had these for dinner last night and thought they were super fly! loved the buttermilk/sour cream combo! thanks for the great recipe!

YUM!

I love that these are totally classic, but that the peppercorns add a little twist.

Nummers!

Love It! Great recipe, Mr L!
Did you know if you don't happen to have buttermilk you can just add some vinegar to your milk & it will curdle.
Sonar

These were delicious, my only complaint is that the peppercorn seemed to dominate the flavor a little too much for my taste.

Great recipe -- love the addition of rosemary.

Simple and classic, I love it! (P.S. Using up the buttermilk in my fridge tonight with this recipe!)

I would have myself a big steamin' helpin' of those!

Gorgeous mashers!