Rich Creamy Mashed Potato
Sides | British
This is the mash I make when I’m trying to impress. Christmas, birthdays, a special dinner at home. It’s thicker, fluffier and more luxurious than your everyday mash, and the difference comes from two things: baking the potatoes instead of boiling them, and finishing the mash with butter and milk infused with garlic, bay and peppercorns. It takes longer than the standard stovetop version but most of that time is hands-off while the potatoes bake. Want an easier version? Check out my everyday mashed potatoes.
Pub Mashed Potato Explained
Bake, don’t boil
The whole reason this mash turns out fluffy is that we bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. Boiled potatoes pull in water during the cook, and water is the enemy of fluffy mash. Baked potatoes come out as dry, which leaves room in the flesh to absorb butter and flavoured milk. Sit the potatoes on a generous layer of salt on a tray, which both draws extra moisture out of the skins and stops them rolling around. Prick the skins a few times so steam can escape, then into a 180°C oven for around an hour and 20 minutes. They’re done when you can press one with your finger and it gives easily with no resistance.
The infusion
While the potatoes are in the oven, we'll infuse the butter and milk with bay, garlic and black peppercorns over a gentle heat. The aromatics steep into the warm liquid and that’s where the mash gets its depth from. This is also where you can play around. Thyme, rosemary, a touch of white miso or even some caramelised onion all work well. Bring the liquid slowly up to a simmer and watch the milk doesn’t boil over while you’re distracted with the potatoes.
Dry the riced potato
Once the potatoes are baked and rested, slice them open, scoop the flesh out and pass it through a ricer. A masher works too if you don’t have one. Tip the riced potato back into a saucepan over medium heat and stir for a couple of minutes to drive off any last steam. This is the step that gets you fluffy mash instead of a dense paste. Then strain the infused milk through a sieve so no peppercorns or bay leaves end up in the potato, and add it in 3 or 4 stages, stirring through each time until you hit the consistency you want. Go slow. You can always add more but you can’t take it out.
Ingredients
- 6 medium Sebago potato
- Sea salt for baking and seasoning
- 3 bay leaf
- 4 cloves garlic
- 100g unsalted butter +25g extra for serving
- 6 black peppercorns
- 500ml whole milk
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C.
- Rinse the potatoes under running cold water to thoroughly rinse off any dirt. Dry the potatoes well. Prick the potatoes with the tip of a small, sharp knife to allow steam to escape, roughly 10 pricks all over.
- Prepare a flat oven tray and sprinkle over an even layer of salt.
- Place the potatoes on this tray, then transfer into the oven to bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until completely soft all the way though. Remove from the oven and rest for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the bay leaf, garlic, butter, peppercorns and milk to a medium saucier on medium heat to infuse. Take care and watch the milk doesn’t get too hot and boil over.
- Slice the potatoes in half, then scoop out the flesh inside. Place the scooped out potato into a ricer and pass through (if you don’t have a ricer, a standard potato masher still works great.)
- Place the mashed potato into a clean, large saucier. Place the saucier medium heat and stir for 2 minutes to dry the mash out even further.
- Pass the infused milk through a sieve. Add the milk to the potato in 3-4 stages, fully incorporating the liquid into the potato each time. Once you’re happy with the consistency, taste and adjust the seasoning as required.
- Place the finished potato mash into a medium sized serving bowl and top with a few knobs of cold butter.
Recipe notes
Sebago (or other floury) potatoes:
You want a starchy, floury potato. Sebago, Maris Piper, King Edward and Agria are all great choices. The high starch and low moisture content gives you a fluffy mash. Supermarkets often just label spuds as “all-rounder” or “good for roasting”, so a specialty grocer or fruit and veg shop is your best bet for the named variety.
Butter:
100g of unsalted butter for the infusion. Unsalted lets you control the seasoning at the end with a hit of sea salt rather than guessing how much salt is already in there.
Whole milk:
Full-fat, not skim. The fat in the milk is what carries the bay, garlic and peppercorn flavours from the infusion into the potato. Skim milk leaves you with something thin and slightly chalky. If you want it even richer, swap up to half the milk for cream.