For everyday I boil russet, rice them and add butter. Just butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

If I wanna be fancy ill roast some garlic and squish it in there....

Russets, sometimes riced and sometimes grid mashed. I boil them in salted water, take them off the stove when very close to done and drain them, cover the pot again and let them steam briefly. I've used my elec hand mixer when in a hurry but I'd rather have them fluffy than 'whipped'. Lots of butter, a little milk or cream, salt and pepper.

Yellows, mashed with a hand masher. Milk and butter. I don't like mashed potatoes with the skins on.

When I really want to treat myself, I'll use the hand mixer. It makes them nice and fluffy.

I just remembered that I have a ricer, too. Never think of using it, probably because I don't like cleaning the mashed clump that always sticks to the bottom of the cup.

I only use Russet variety for baking because of their fluff and flakiness. Russets make a nice french fry as the inside will be light and fluffy, not heavy or greasy.

I use Idaho for mashing as they are waxier and make a creamy mashed potato. Idahos also hold up better when home fried or raw fried and in potato salad.

I have to make them vegan again this year which is annoying but they were very good last year with evoo, plant butter and garlic. Boiled russets.

Plant butter is the new name for margarine lol,,,,,dried plums and such!!

I prefer russets when I maked mashed potatoes - boiled, drained, put back on low heat to dry. Mash with a hand masher. Plenty of butter first, then thinned with half & half (which we always have). Seasoned with salt/pepper. Sometimes I add some freshly grated parmesan, depending on what we're eating with them.

I've also mashed potatoes with Garlic and Herb Boursin cheese in place of the butter. They're decadent - usually don't need to thin them much this way. We prefer our mashed spuds kind of stiff with a bit of texture, not smoothly whipped.

Another way I've seasoned them is to heat heavy cream and steep fresh rosemary, a smashed clove of garlic, and few whole black peppercorns in it while the potatoes are boiling. Mash with butter and strain the seasoned cream into them to thin.

Always Idaho Russets, peeled, chunked up, boiled, drained well and hand mashed with butter salt and pepper milk and maybe cream.....and sometimes a dollop of sour cream if I have some.

Reds and russets (that's what I grow in the garden). For mashed potatoes I boil them but more frequently I chunk them up, put 'em on a sheet pan with some garlic cloves and rosemary and go the roasty-toasty route.

I currently use a press ricer because my kids don't like lumps, but if it were up to me I'd just use a hand masher - with skins! Cream when I have it, half-and-half when I don't, somewhere between a glug and a cup. Salt, butter (a knob) and we're good to go.

Yukon Gold potatoes, boiled skin on until fork tender. Through the ricer, add warm cream lots of real melted butter, sea salt and pepper. The ricer enables me to remove the skins without peeling, I sometimes add roasted garlic to the ricer with the potatoes.

I can't remember the last time I made mashed potatoes, but when I do make them, I use Yukon Golds and rice them with a press ricer. I add a bit of butter and thin them with the potato water - no milk or cream and no salt, but usually some pepper. I save the potato water for making bread.

We tend to have rice instead of potatoes, and I use potatoes as an ingredient in things like lentil soup or stew in chunks instead of having them by themselves. I also make potato frittatas and latkes.

I did notice the other day that my ricer had not been used in a long time. I use it mainly when I make gnocchi, and that's the only time I buy russet potatoes.

It never occurs to me to make mashed potatoes, although I do like them.

I bought a cylinder ricer before I bought the press ricer, and I use the cylinder ricer for pressing chilies and to remove the skins and seeds from them. It works well for that, and I use it more than I use the press ricer, since I press chilies more often than I make mashed potatoes.

Russets for me, always. Hand masher, butter, sour cream, milk (cream if I have it), s&p. Sometimes I'll heat the cream with smashed garlic cloves to infuse the flavor then remove them.

I rarely use my ricer for potatoes. However, I do use it to squeeze out the liquid after thawing frozen spinach for certain dishes.

ETA - I almost always make mashed potatoes in advance. I like to cover them with foil and put the pan/bowl over barely simmering water...double boiler style. Does a nice job keeping them warm, fluffy and moist. I'll dot them with butter about a half hour before serving.

I rarely make any kind of potatoes, but for mashed I use big russets, boiled, but baked works fine. Roasted (done beyond just cooked, usually with an oiled skin) has great flavor but they can get wet and messy then have to be fixed. The CF approved press ricer was life changing! (There are knock offs that cost a lot less, but I don't know if they're as good.) No ”mashed clump”. Really easy to use because of the lever action from it being so huge. A pain to store but worth it. I like pepper, but no one else here does. Salt does get in, but not a lot. :) We all like them potato-y and stiff, especially if there's gravy, so only a large pat—maybe half a tablespoon—of butter in what I'd make for four people, more for texture than butteriness, and no milk or cream. Perfect recepticle for rich gravy. :)

I'll admit it. I really don't mind potato flakes. :D I make mashed potatoes from scratch, but when I need them as a carrier for cooking I use flakes, and they're better on they're own than a lot of scratch mashed I've been served. :D

I rarely make mashed potatoes -- DH doesn't like them, which is odd because he loves potatoes in general. If I do make them, maybe once a year or once every other year, I'll use Idaho or Russets, whichever I have on hand. And I definitely use a ricer -- so much easier than mashing.

@plllog, that is my ricer! As I mentioned the kids don't tolerate lumps so that is what I use, but it is a bit of a PITA to clean. One day I will give the ricer to a child as part of the "first apartment" stash of used, but still useful, kitchen implements and return to my first love, the hand masher:

...which is probably worth its own thread/poll: The pros and cons of each mashing technology. My MIL uses her stand mixer but I feel like they turn out starchy. But maybe that is the potatoes themselves, as she buys them at the store and I'm not sure what she gets.

@gardengrl66 z5, I think my mother had a masher like that! Like the best of both tined and grid. The grid one that's still there is ideal for hummus. For most things I prefer the daisy style tines. But I don't find the big ricer hard to clean. A pain to store, but for cleaning it give it a quick rinse so bits don't harden in the holes and edges and set it aside, then I put it in the DW, top rack, after the main dishes are done. It gets first priority in, so there's room for it. :) And they keep saying the DW uses less water. :)

Back when we could have the mobs, I also used said ricer for dozens of the Andrew Zimmern Killer Potato Latkes. They're two kinds of potato, one grated and one mashed, and as good as he says. :)

So, on TV, on all sorts of judged competitions, those judges cringe when people put mashed potatoes in a stand mixer or pro blender. It's supposed to make them gluey. I'm not surprised, having often made actual glue and resist (i.e., easily washed out glue) from starchy things. Given the successes of our friends above, I'm convinced that a little aeration from a handmixer can be equivalent to beating with a wooden spoon, but that's a whole different thing from letting the big boys run.

i like sliced potatoes roasted in the oven ... also smashed potatoes

usually russets but also like reds

Yukon Gold or other yellow potato, peeled, chunked and boiled, plenty of butter, half and half or cream, salt and a hand masher. I have both the grid masher and the one like gardengrl and use either. We don't have them often, but when we do, I don't want to make "diet" mashed potatoes!

gardengrl, my masher looks just like that!

Annie

You know, none of those choices really apply for me. I will boil or steam whole potatoes - either starchy russets or gold potatoes, whole in their jackets, and then pull the peels off before mashing with a masher, adding butter , seasoning, and half & half or milk and then whip with an electric hand mixer.

I do think that next time I make mashed potatoes, I might try peeling and cutting up first so it won't take so long to cook them, but when I peel after boiling or steaming, only the very thin outer peel is removed, so I feel like there's more flavor left behind.

I do that for potato salads too.

I rarely make either of those dishes though.

I use Dutch Creams if I can get them, otherwise Royal Blues. Boiled, well hand mashed with a lump of butter, salt and pepper, then enough milk or cream to make them nice and fluffy. I find a mixer can make them gluey and my ricer has disappeared.

I have 2 mashers like the one shown....I "lost" the original old one....bought a enw one and found the old!