Making mashed potatoes with more than 1 type of potato

[Shalmanese]

Every mashed potato recipe I've seen has dictated a single type of potato, either floury or waxy, depending on the desired result. Has anyone tried using a combination of the two to get something that meets in the middle? Is there a difference in cooking time between the two? Anything else I would need to know if I were to try?

[rotuts]

in my experience the waxy potatoes ( like bliss ) get really gummy if beaten with an electric mixer. fine by hand with one of those potato smashers.

[Shalmanese]

That doesn't answer my question.

[Anna N]

I usually keep two types of potatoes in the cupboard: Yukon golds and russets. Many times I have not had enough of either to make mashed potatoes for a crowd so I simply cook them separately then mash them together - works for me. I use either a ricer, a food mill or a simple masher.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I've also mixed spuds between waxy and powdery; I actually think I prefer mash that way, because the texture is really rather awesome. I use a simple hand masher.

So long as you make sure your chunks are about the same size going into the pot, you won't have too much of an issue with cooking times.

[rotuts]

sorry: russetts alone with an electric mixer for a good while are the gold standard. for a while a while back i cut my potatoes smaller and smaller to get them to cook quicker: something ended up being ,missed: the potato flavor thats in the pot of water and not the mash: i only cook whole now and mash the skin.

in one of the earlyer Heston bulmenthal tv shows he added a lot of potato shavings to the water to add potato flavor.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Rotuts: it all comes down to personal preference, doesn't it? I prefer a mixture of Atahualpa and Oro Morado potatoes, skins off the Atahualpas and on the Oro Morado, in very salty water, drained, then mashed by hand with yogurt.

[Jenni]

drained, then mashed by hand with yogurt.

Very interesting. Ratio of yoghurt to potato please? Any added fat? I would like to try this, though I cannot get the same potatoes as you (in fact I basically have very little choice).

[Panaderia Canadiense]

So long as the spuds are somewhere in the happy middle between waxy and powdery, you'll be fine. If they're very powdery, you'll need more yogurt.

I've never actually measured the yogurt, but I suspect it's about 1/4 cup or so given about 10 medium sized potatoes (3 for each person and one for the pot). I don't add fat - the sour yogurt I get here is made from unskimmed (ie full fat) milk, and it's so rich that it's kind of redundant to add butter.

[Dave the Cook]

It's probably useful to draw a distinction between "mashed" -- which I would say is a hand process aided by mashers, ricers or food mills -- and "whipped," where a stand or handheld electric mixer is used. When making the former, mixing potato types isn't usually a problem. Once you bring motors into the picture though, you run the risk of overworking the starch in waxy potatoes, leading to the gluey mess to which rotuts alludes. The only way I know around that is to retrograde the starch before applying mechanical force.

[andiesenji]

The answer to your question is, Yes.

The best ratio I have found was 2/3 russet potatoes and 1/3 "waxy" potatoes and they must be cooked separately, unless you steam them.

If using a ricer, which produces a completely non-lumpy result, you don't even have to be super careful about removing all the skins.

If you are going to mash them, start with peeling the white rose or red potatoes into less than 1 inch chunks and put them in water, then peel and cut the russets into 1 1/2 inch chunks and start them both cooking in separate pots.

Test with a fork or thin-bladed knife to see if they are done.

Drain and leave them in the pots covered, for at least five minutes.

lightly salt them then mash the waxy potatoes roughly, then add to the russets and mash them together adding milk, cream or ?? THEN add salt and pepper to taste and finish mashing and fluffing.

If using a ricer, prepare and cook them the same way, put them through a ricer and stir to blend and add your other ingredients and seasoning.

I like sour cream, my grandmother used the thickest heavy cream, some people like yogurt and some only butter - and it has to be real butter!

I don't like using a mixer, I think the potatoes develop a texture that simply doesn't feel right to me.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I lean toward fluffy potatoes for mashing and waxy potatoes for boiling or steaming, but bear in mind that people mash other things like turnips, yams, celeriac, and carrots, sometimes together with potatoes, and I just wouldn't get too hung up about it. Potatoes of different types will cook for about the same length of time, if they are cut into similar sized pieces, but if you're concerned about it, it's easy enough to cook them separately in two separate pots.

I kind of like potatoes mashed by hand, preferably a little lumpy.

I've done the stand mixer approach, and I've found that if I want to go for ultra-light, I make a puree of mashed potatoes with heavy cream, butter, and salt and whip them in the Thermo-whip. This gives the flavor of mashed potatoes without the heaviness of mashed potatoes.

Heavy and lumpy for a beef stew or bigos or sauerbraten, but airy and weightless, say, for a delicate fish.

[ChrisTaylor]

I've seen it. iirc someone--an Oliver or a Ramsay, maybe--recommends it in some book, somewhere on my shelf. I did attempt it with equal parts waxy potatoes (Desiree) and floury (maybe Sebagos). The 'problem' came about with the fact that two kinds of potatoes are going to take a different amount of time to cook. If I was to attempt it again I'd maybe use two small saucepans and cook them on their own.

[andiesenji]

I've seen it. iirc someone--an Oliver or a Ramsay, maybe--recommends it in some book, somewhere on my shelf. I did attempt it with equal parts waxy potatoes (Desiree) and floury (maybe Sebagos). The 'problem' came about with the fact that two kinds of potatoes are going to take a different amount of time to cook. If I was to attempt it again I'd maybe use two small saucepans and cook them on their own.

That works. I used to use this method when catering. Of course I cooked larger volumes but as I described in my last post, after much trial and error (lots of error) I found that the 2/3 - 1/3 ratio worked best and they had to be cooked separately.

I also put them in water to "soak" after peeling and cutting them, especially the russets - as quite a bit of starch will come out of the potatoes, making for a fluffier end result.

It's also important to leave them in the pots (covered) after draining, so the steam has an effect - which makes them break down easier - also contributes to the fluffiness.

During my years of catering, I cooked tons of potatoes and tried just about every known method. An old friend, once a chef at the Huntington Hotel, told me about this method at least 30 years ago.

[OliverB]

I mash together what ever is on hand if I feel like mashed potatoes. I also usually cook a couple cloves of garlic along with them and use anything from milk over yoghurt to kefir and - of course - butter on them. It's not like they're expensive, I'd say experiment and see what happens! And mash purple ones sometime, fun to see them turn blue once cooled and a different purple once reheated or fried up the next day :-)

[Mjx]

I like a mix of potatoes. Sometimes I've done it out of necessity, but given the choice, I use more than one type of potato, anyway. For whatever it's worth, I like the texture of potatoes that have been roasted over that made from boiled potatoes, and is seems to mitigate the potential for gluey-ness of waxy potatoes.