This was an unexpected journey. I've been eating mashed potatoes all my life--pretty much the same way: Peel the potatoes, boil them, mash them, and make the gravy. A thousand times.
I never thought there was another way to make them. Wrong! So now, we'll show you:
It's easy to dump boiled potatoes into the bowl of a stand-type mixer and hit the switch. But a couple years ago, I decided that I had to understand the merits of a potato ricer and started experimenting with ricers and riced potatoes. Yes, there is a difference--a ricer doesn't pulverize the potatoes bursting the tiny potato modules and releasing all the starch.
I like riced potatoes better. But I'm basically lazy and most of the time, we have kids and grandkids over which means a big pot of potatoes. It's too easy to use the stand-type mixer.
I still have a ricer but I use it mostly for hash browns to squeeze the water from the potatoes and make them crispier. But you decide. The following will introduce you to a choice of ricers--and a link to crispier hash browns.
