Mashed potato
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- This article is about the food. For the 1960s dance craze, see Mashed Potato. For the album by The Smashing Pumpkins, see Mashed Potatoes.
Mashed potato (mashed potatoes in American English and sometimes called smashed potato) is a common way of serving potato in many countries worldwide. It is made by mashing boiled potatoes (peeled or unpeeled) and mixing in milk, cream, butter or vegetable oil, and sometimes garlic, cheese, bacon bits, and sour cream. A French variation adds egg yolk for Pommes duchesse that is piped through a pastry tube into wavy ribbons and rosettes, brushed with butter and lightly browned.
Many cooks feel that making the dish successfully is dependent on first returning the boiled (and drained) potatoes to the empty pot and heating them to drive off surplus steam but others feel that this is an unnecessary step.
The success of the dish is a matter of opinion. Some hold that potatoes mashed or smashed with a fork have the true texture of the genuine mashed potato. Some say potato cells are damaged during violent processing such as in a food processor because the starch makes puréed mashed potato very sticky. Others say that passing the boiled potato through a ricer or food mill produces a desired refined texture. Other ways of making them include using a hand implement that actually mashes them in the pot or using an electric mixer (not a blender) to mix them into whipped potatoes. Another key factor in the success of mashed potatoes is whether or not to make them lumpy or smooth. Some prefer them lumpy to add a little more substance to the dish, but others prefer smooth so they can focus entirely on the taste. It's also a practice in some cases to include the skins.
Not all varieties of potato are suitable for mashing, the best being floury varieties rather than the waxy types used as salad potatoes. If the latter are used, they will require thorough cooking and mashing or the dish will end up containing small potato chunks. Recommended varieties available in the UK include :
- Desiree
- Maris Piper
- King Edward
- Kerrs Pink
- Avalanche
- Lady Rosetta
- British Queen
- Golden Wonder
- Hermes potato
Mashed potato is also an ingredient of various other dishes, including Shepherds' pie, Colcannon and potato croquettes.
In addition to butter, cream, or milk, mashed potato may also be seasoned with salt, pepper (often white pepper, to blend in), and/or a dash of nutmeg. In some countries, other spices may be added for more flavor, e.g. a variety of common kitchen herbs. A white turnip cooked and mashed with the potatoes in a proportion of about 1:10, provides a slight "bite" that mashed potatoes proverbially lack. Alternatively, a little garlic may be cooked with it. Another option is to blend in wasabi powder to taste. This works well as a side dish for tuna steaks. In the U.S., mashed potatoes are often covered with gravy. In London, mashed potato is sold in pie and mash shops. It is often served with sausage, in this form being called bangers and mash.
In many American households, the top of each serving is hollowed with a spoon in order to form a gravy and/or butter volcano crater.
Dehydrated instant mashed potato mixes are also available, as well as frozen varieties. The dehydrated varieties vary in quality and texture, and purists generally consider them to be inferior. A campaign for one such product (Smash) memorably launched the business of advertising agency Boase Massimi Pollitt.
Potatoes, especially mashed potatoes, have a high glycemic index which some consider is bad for health.
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[edit] Mashed potatoes in popular culture
- Perhaps the most famous mashed potatoes in cinema are featured in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The protagonist, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), comes into contact with extraterrestrials. As a result, he begins obsessively constructing models of a hill which he has never seen. One night, Neary begins heaping large spoonfuls of mashed potatoes onto his dinner plate. As his family looks on, he takes spoonful after spoonful, and sets about sculpting the hill. His older son stares at him with a look of pain and sadness. Shamefaced, Roy finally says, "I guess you've noticed something a little strange with Dad. It's OK. I'm still Dad. I can't describe it - what I'm feeling."
- The role of mashed potatoes in Close Encounters has been parodied several times. In the film UHF, George Newman (Weird Al Yankovic) insists that the shape of his mashed potatoes "means something" and is "important". In the The Simpsons episode "The Springfield Files", Homer sculpts his mashed potatoes into a shape similar to the Devils Tower after he encounters what he believes to be an alien. In another Simpsons episode, "Homie the Clown", Homer forms a large mashed potato circus tent after becoming obsessed with a billboard advertising a local clown college. Finally, in the film Muppets From Space, a fan of Gonzo presents Kermit with a mashed potato sculpture of Gonzo's head.
- The lyrics of Neil Young's song "T-Bone", from the 1981 album Re-ac-tor, consists entirely of the words, "Got mashed potatoes / Ain't got no T-bone". Because the song is nearly ten minutes long, the phrase "mashed potatoes" is repeated in excess of 25 times.
- The Mashed Potato was the name of a dance craze in the early 1960s, reminiscient of the Twist, and is referenced in such songs as Dee Dee Sharp's "Mashed Potato Time" and The Contours' "Do You Love Me".
- The Cartoon Network program Space Ghost Coast to Coast has aired a song entitled "Mashed Potatoes", which includes the lines: "I've eaten meatballs in Sweden, and porkchops in Peru / But all it did, all it did, all it did, all it did / Was remind me of you, baby / And your mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes / Oh baby, pass the butter".
- Prince's album Exodus (with the New Power Generation) features a song by the name of "Mashed Potato Girl Intro", but the lyrics lack discernible mashed potato content.
- Former Beatle Paul McCartney filmed making mashed potatoes from Linda McCartney's cookbook. The internet abounds in obscure videos of mashed potatoes, such as this 1924 footage of a man attempting to get them off his spoon.
- Mashed potatoes, in the form of a projectile weapon, were the primary source of humour in the children's television series Bodger and Badger. The program's theme song begins with the lines, "Everybody knows, Badger loves mashed potatoes! He makes them into shapes and eats them every day!"
- In the J.M. Barrie biopic Finding Neverland (2004), Barrie (Johnny Depp) eats mashed potatoes at dinner. In a blooper from the film, Depp eats his mashed potatoes directly from the serving dish, not from his plate.
- A witness in the 2005 molestation trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson testified that, although Jackson did not give alcohol to his underage future accuser during a 2003 flight to Santa Barbara, the boy did hurl mashed potatoes at a sleeping doctor, resulting in a food fight.
- On the reality TV program Survivor Cook Islands (controversial for its division of contestants according to ethnicity), contestant Stephannie Favor was voted off the program after making a remark about wanting some mashed potatoes. The remark was interpreted as a sign that Favor was not truly committed to Survivor Cook Islands.
- In a recent commercial for auto insurance provider Geico, singer Little Richard screams, "Mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce...wahoooo!"
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- ↑ Holly Jones with Alan Wilson, The Book of Organic Potatoes, ISBN 0-9540631-0-4
