Robin’s mother is famous for her mashed potatoes. She always uses Idaho baking potatoes and it has to be cold butter and cold whole milk added to the cooked, riced, potatoes. She seasons them generously with fine salt and freshly ground pepper and whips them smooth with a hand mixer. They are creamy, fluffy, and full of wonderful potato flavor.

Alternate Preparations: Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes

We start by peeling and cutting each large potato into eight pieces. We place the potatoes into a large pot filled with cold water. When all the potatoes are cut, we drain them in the sink and add fresh, cold water to cover the potatoes by a few inches.

We heat the pot, covered, over medium-high heat until the water comes to a boil. We remove the cover, stir, and continue to cook over medium heat until the potatoes are tender. This takes another 30 minutes or so, depending on the size of the potato pieces.

We drain the cooked potatoes into a colander and place back in the hot pot. We place the stick of butter in our serving bowl (which we can place above a pot of simmering water to keep the potatoes warm for a few minutes until it is time to eat). Using our ricer, we rice the potatoes right into the serving bowl. We add salt and pepper and some of the cold milk and mix with our hand mixer. We gradually add in the milk until the desired creaminess is reached.

We season to taste and then keep warm in the serving bowl, covered with foil, over a pot of simmering water.

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