What is Mashed Potatoes?
Boiled potatoes mashed with butter, milk or cream and seasonings. Mashed potatoes have a rich, creamy texture and an earthy, mild flavor.
Ingredients
The potato is a starchy vegetable and tuber that forms under the soil. There are a number of varieties of potato, including Russet potatoes, the yellow colored Yukon Gold, and many others that are purple, red, small and large. All potatoes have a very thin skin, though baking potatoes have a slightly sturdier skin. The potato is hard and inedible until cooked. It can be boiled, baked, fried or cooked any number of ways and is an extremely versatile starch vegetable. The texture of a cooked potato is soft, while holding its shape and has an earthy and sweet flavor that is extremely bland, until salted.
Heavy cream has a high fat content, giving it extra flavor and richness. The cream usually comes from cow's milk and generally floats to the top of milk, from which it can be skimmed. The cream is cream colored, or a pale golden color. The texture is thicker than milk with a flavor that is mild, rich and creamy. Heavy cream is used to make whipped cream and many desserts.
Butter is made from churned cream, usually from a cow. It has a cream color and a texture that is smooth and melts easily. The flavor is mild and creamy. Butter is often sold in square sticks, or as a flat or round block. It is delicious on bread. It pairs better in baked goods than salted butter, due to its more neutral taste. It also makes an excellent cooking fat.
Milk is almost always sourced come from cows. Sometimes sheep, goat, yak and water buffalo milk are used. In general, store bough milk comes from a cow, unless specified otherwise. Whole milk is white, or cream colored and has a higher fat content than skim milk and therefore a creamier and richer texture and flavor. The flavor is mild and bland with a hint of savory sweetness and is satisfying, especially due to its creaminess. Milk is served as a beverage and used in a multitude of dishes both sweet and savory.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
