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How long to boil potatoes for mashed potatoes

How long to boil potatoes for mashed potatoes

0:00
2.5 cm
Chunk size · floury potatoes
17
Minutes simmering · then steam dry
Which cutTap for a timer

Floury potatoes, the right chunk size and the simmer time that gives fluffy mash instead of glue, including the steam dry step most recipes skip.

Cook to temperature, not to timeThe variety does more work than the timer on this page. Russet, Idaho, Maris Piper and King Edward carry the most starch, and starch is what pushes the cells apart into something fluffy. Times are simmering time from cold, salted water, counted from when it boils. Mash wants them fully soft, so a chunk should fall off the fork rather than sit on it. Drain, then return them to the empty hot pan for a minute to steam off the water they picked up. Watery mash is almost always a skipped drying step.

More potatoes times

Common questions

Which potatoes make the best mash?

Floury ones, by a wide margin. Russet and Idaho in the US, Maris Piper and King Edward in the UK. Their starch granules swell as they cook and shove the cells apart, so the cells come out of the pan whole and separate under a masher. Waxy potatoes do the opposite: the cells stay glued together, so mashing ruptures them and spills free starch into the mix. That free starch is the glue. Yukon Gold sits between the two and is a reasonable compromise if you want one bag of potatoes for everything.

Whole or cut into chunks?

Whole gives better mash and takes 25 minutes. Less cut surface means less water absorbed, and a potato that has taken on less water needs less drying out afterwards. Chunks are done in 17 and are far easier to handle. Do not go below about 2 cm, though. Small pieces waterlog, and no amount of drying brings them back.

Why is my mash gluey?

Either the wrong potato or the wrong tool. A food processor or a stick blender shears the cells open and releases enough free starch to turn a pan of mash into wallpaper paste in about four seconds. Use a ricer, or a hand masher, and stop the moment the lumps are gone. Warm the milk or cream before it goes in, because cold liquid stalls everything and tempts you into mashing longer.

Do I peel before or after boiling?

Before, if you are cutting them into chunks, since peeling hot chunks is not realistic. After, if you are boiling them whole: the skin lifts off with a thumb while they are still hot, and the mash is noticeably drier for it. Hold the potato on a fork so you can work while it is too hot to touch.

Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.