What do you reckon?

Best potato for roasters and mash: Maris Pipers.

Second Maris Pipers – they’re nice and floury. You don’t want a waxy potato.

If you like it fluffy, crack an egg into the tatties and mash slowly. The egg will cook in the heat of the potatoes. Not sure why this works, but it does!

Vivaldi.

Marabel.

+1 Vivaldi

Sainsbury’s do them, best mash ever.

Vivaldi also make the best jackets – sainsers do the small ones which cook in an hour and are awesome.

Second the maris pipers for mash.

Gotta be the Maris

Accept no substitute! 😉

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SAbJjktk7E[/video] 😉

another vote for the vivaldi!

Best mash tip I got was from a chef in pub: “Boil the **** out of the potatoes”

Obviously you don’t want them waterlogged, but a fair slice longer on the boil than you might think does them wonders.

And mash very throughly before you put any butter/milk/cream in. You need to get rid of the lumps before the added lube makes it easier for the lumps to sqeeze through the masholes.

desiree for mash
king edward for roast

maris piper for general purpose

Dave

King Edwards for me.

My mash tip – after mashing/ adding your butter/ milk / cream , beat the mash with a wooden spoon for extra smooth fluffiness

Maris Pipers.I also like Red Rooster. If I have any in, I sometimes add a sweet potato to the rest of the spuds. Lovely!

Always heat the milk and butter before adding to the roughly mashed pots. Like the OP said, beat them to a pulp with a wooden spoon for lump free mash!

Many are good, as above. But to take it to the next level, bake, scoop, then mash. It’s all in the skinz. And give it a good working with the spoon.

Floury potatoes (maris pipers, red roosters or a bit left field yukon golds or arran victories), cook in less water than you’d think – barely cover the potatoes, but cook with a lid on so anything that isn’t under the water is getting steamed – the reason for this is you don’t want to drain of the water – cook the hell out of them but then mash the cooking water into them (you might even have to add more water as you go). Its a brave step at first as it just seems to turn into runny slurry but as you break the pots up they suck up the water and start to fluff, and don’t just mash, after smushing them go at it like fury with a whisk, for longer than seems sensible. If anything is going to work up an appetite its attacking spuds with a whisk, but its sooooo worth it.

Something I’ve not tried yet… making mash with baked rather than boiled pots [edit- Bob for Kansas heat me to it while i was dribbling on my keyboard]

Ok, the perfect way,is to steam them.

For years, I found boiling to perfection, without them waterlogging and breaking up, or remaing hard, was a bit of a black art, esp on an electriv hob.

Since I discovered peeling, then steaming, til soft inside, I get perfect patotoes every time.

Generally Maris Pipers, and a little butter, cream and black pepper. And then I use a potato masher to crush them, but then use an old fashioned fork to actually whip to a spun flume of carbohydrate goodness after a good crushing, to get the air in and make it light and fluffy.

Picasso for everything except chips, great spuds

The best potato by far for mash is one with some friends.

Maris Pipers.

Maris Pipers are better for chips…

Maris Bard makes a better mash!

No one has mentioned a potato ricer yet. I love mine.

The best ever spuds are the ones you find in an unattended field!

Wilja.

I’ve been getting well into a monster mash blend lately, any old spuds, carrots, swede and parsnip in pretty much equal quantities all mashed together quite coarsely, fantastic!

Maris piper scallions and loads of butter . If you can’t eat them all, have them with your fry in the morning!

Purple Majesty, from Sainsburys. (don’t know if they are still selling them, they were in October)

Unfortunately the wife couldn’t deal with it and banned me from buying them again 🙁

IMG_0301 by Ollie and Sally, on Flickr

@spooky_b329

bonus points for the oxford gold… yum.

Dave

Another vote for vivaldi, lovely buttery variety, if you bake them then scoop out the flesh you get a fantastic mash or keep the skins on to mix it up. Doesn’t make the best roast potatoes though.

Tried Purple Majesty mash last night with similar results to above – tasted nice and consistency was good, but GF wanted to eat it in the dark.

I prefer

small 1-2 cm cubes
in boiling water until they fall off a fork with a tap
drain and leave to dry for a min or so
add hot milk and mash
go at it with a large hand whisk
butter

Maris Pipers for me, boil until they just start to crumble, drain and let them dry out/let off steam in a colander.

Then whack em through a ricer. Then the secret is to drop a few 1cm cubes of butter and a glug of warm milk into the pan and start whisking.

Whisking vigorously while the butter melts gives the best consistency. Season with lots of good salt and white pepper. (black looks messy).

Tried Purple Majesty mash last night with similar results to above – tasted nice and consistency was good, but GF wanted to eat it in the dark.

Oh good, still selling them then…I’ve just spent the morning mucking out her horse and waiting for the farrier, so might buy some more for tonight 🙂 No beer this time as I’m on call 🙁

Are you making mashed potatoes or do you need a mash for distilling vodka..?

Maris Piper, knob of butter, salt, nutmeg…mmmm

Bake ’em first, gives much more depth to the flavour.

purple majesty, as above! so tasty and zany coloured to boot!

Home Guard for early in the year, Arran Victory or Kerrs Pinks are also good

Amateurs. Sweet potato mash all the way. Nom nom.