Have never done this, but don' see why it wouldn't work nicely. Thinkng an hour or 2 on LOW (with lid on) would not dr them out. If they did seem a little dry, could always add a little more milk/cream/butter before serving.

Yes, and yes. Butter the crock pot before adding the mashed potatoes and place the crock pot on low. Add a few pats of butter to the top to keep the potatoes from drying out on top.

-Grainlady

Yes! I have been doing it this way the past several years - makes it so easy to keep potatoes hot. Grainlady's method is the same as mine.

This surely beats my method of keeping them hot in a double-boiler and stirring them once in a while. Seems as if one could mash the potatoes well in advance, like the day before, and then warm them up in the crockpot. Possible?

Thanks for posting this! It's is exactly what I was checking in here for. Just learned I've been assigned to bring mashed potatoes to a community dinner. Don't want to make the casserole with sour cream/cream cheese. I just like mashed potatoes and need to keep them hot.

My family does this too, it's a great way to keep regular mashed potatoes hot. Just remember to turn the crock pot ON--one year my mom forget, and now we never let her forget it. :) I make the potatoes in the morning, and let the crock pot heat up with some water in the bottom; dump out the water and add the hot mashed potatoes to the warm crock.

This post was edited by bookmom41 on Sat, Nov 23, 13 at 13:53

There are very good recipes for Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes - Google âÂÂRefrigerator Mashed PotatoesâÂÂ. These have cream cheese and sour cream (in addition to butter), but if you donâÂÂt tell anyone, they will gobble it up and proclaim them to be âÂÂThe best mashed potatoes ever! â If you want to go the extra mile - add some roasted garlic!

IâÂÂve made Refrigerator Mashed Potatoes for years because of being able to do them in advance, but they did require the oven for re-heating. The last couple of years, IâÂÂve turned to my trusted Slow Cooker to re-heat and serve from, and it works like a charm. Remember, a Roaster Oven is just a large Slow Cooker if you have a lot of Mashed Potatoes to serve. :-)

Here's the Cooks Illustrated recipe, no sour cream, just butter and heavy cream. The recipe says it serves 8-10, so for a group of 40 would I get 4-5 lbs potatoes?

Here is a link that might be useful: CI Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

I made my mashed potatoes the day before Thanksgiving. I warmed them in my crockpot that day. I did not following any recipe and just added things to taste. It took about 4 hours in the crockpot on low. I stirred and added butter and milk during that time so the lid was opened several times. I would do it again!

The Cooks recipe calls for 4 to 5 lbs. of russet potatoes for 8-10 servings. so, for 40, that would be 20 to 25 lbs. I'm not sure about others, but I find that on Thanksgiving, we never seem to have leftovers of mashed potatoes, so I'd err on the side of too many potatoes. This year, I made my usual last minute potatoes. Despite nine sides, etc., there were almost no potato leftovers. I allotted 5lbs. per 8 people. Last year, I made the Pioneer Woman's make ahead potatoes and they were very heavy (cream cheese and all). I wouldn't advise those.