Brown-Butter Mashed Potatoes Recipe (2024)

In my experience, the potatoes will cook through more evenly if you start them in cold water and then bring them to a boil, rather than adding potatoes to already boiling water (which tends to cook the outside too fast). Love Vaughn’s videos!

I came up with a easy way to keep potatoes warm after they’re mashed. I put the potatoes in a 3 quart aluminum bowl and put it in a covered 7 quart stock pot with a little water in the bottom. Then I just leave the pot to simmer on a back burner. The effect is similar to a mini steam table. The potatoes stay warm and taste great. I’ve left them this way for up to 45 minutes, occasionally stirring every 15 minutes or so. Happy Thanksgiving!

Made these to pair with a meatloaf and they were pretty great, but I would highly recommend using salted butter instead of unsalted.

No, a hand mixer or potato masher does not work "just as well" as a potato ricer. The results are completely different. If you're satisfied with the results of a hand mixer or potato masher, using a ricer will feel like too much trouble. If you like the results of a potato ricer (fluffy and perfectly consistent), you're not going to settle for the results of a potato masher (lumpy) or a hand mixer (gluey).

Put a couple cloves of garlic in with the raw potatoes and cook and mash them in like they were part of the potatoes .Side note amazing video voughn

Ok - So you did a whole video to conclude with this recipe. However, in the video you add chopped chives, fried shallots, and fried potato skins - yet these are nowhere to be found in your recipe!! It might be nice for your viewing audience, if you would write up the recipe the way you depicted it on camera.

Boil potatoes whole, unpeeled. When done, cut in half crosswise. Run through potato ricer with cut side down; the peels will stay behind (you may need to remove them every few potatoes). Then proceed with adding the other ingredients. This is also how to prepare potatoes for gnocchi.

Made this for 2 with a one pound potato cut into 8 pieces, half a stick (4 Tbsp.) butter, and half a cup of milk, cooking the potato in a saucier. Perfect with Kay Chun's meatloaf!

Re tip: We peel and cut the taters 24-48 hours ahead, keep submerged in cool water (in the fridge), and replace the water once or twice. The coloring is retained but much of the potassium is leeched away, so that our family's kidney patient can enjoy the feast with the rest of us.

A suggestion for variants of mashed potatoes, called: mashed potatoes of the four seasons. For spring time, add some green herbs and some green onions and garlic. For summertime make it red using some red spices like paprika, red chili and finely chopped red peppers, and/or dried tomatoes. Use tomato paste to add color. For autumn’s use chestnuts and nutmeg. For winter make your classic white mashed potatoes.Of course you are going to need salt, pepper, butter, milk, or cream.

I always add nutmeg. It’s Divine

Potatoes should start their cooking in cold salted water, not boiling water.

My mother-in-law made the best ever mashed potatoes much like these except she diced a medium onion and boiled it right with the potatoes... and left out the garlic since several members of the family hated it. Onions instead of garlic would make it a 5-star. She did use browned butter.

NEVER, EVER beat potatoes with a mixer! you may end up with a glutenous mess. Ptoperly cooked potatoes can be mashed with a fork.

For a "why are these mashed potatoes so good?!" alternative to garlic, my friend coarsely grates about a tablespoon of raw onion into the potatoes before she mashes them. The enhancing flavour doesn't identify itself as onion.

These were tasty but the slightly brown color of the final mashed potatoes was off putting. Brown is fine for many types of potatoes but mashed potatoes should be creamy yellow or white.

I find it easier to use a ricer to make mashed potatoes. I don't peel the potatoes, I just cook them whole or halved if they're huge. When they're done I cut the potatoes in half and drop them into the ricer cut side down. The skins are left in the ricer after the potatoes are squashed. It saves a step and the texture is better too.

While these are good mashed potatoes, they are really a lot of work, and next time we'll go with a more basic recipe.

I used only a fraction of rosemary and simmered it in the milk only a minute or two, thank goodness, because the dish tasted soap like. Following the directions it would have been inedible. The brown butter too was highly over rated. I won't make this again.

Like other readers, I adapted these brilliant potatoes, aided significantly by Vaughn's video. I felt a little like a moron for investing so much time in "just" mashed potatoes, but it was 1000% worth it. I steamed a mix of Yukon gold & russets. To ensure moistness when reheating, I added creme fraiche & floated some of the milk mixture on top. On Thanksgiving day, 40 mins at 350º, a robust stir + brown butter made for the best holiday spuds EVER!

I PRed Thanksgiving with this one, Vaughn. I’m a mashed potato hero. I didn’t even steep herbs or use garlic at all: just used milk, butter, salt and pepper. The brown butter was plenty to make the potatoes more interesting without competing with the more complex flavors of the main dishes. Browning the butter truly made a remarkable difference. My family has declared this our new Thanksgiving mashed potatoes recipe.

Made with rosemary. No edits required. Perfection!

This was killer!I used about half the garlic, per other comments, which was the right amount for me. Also, when I was browning the butter, I fried sage leaves in it. I fished them out before continuing. At the end, I topped the potatoes with the crunchy sage leaves as well as the butter.

I think Jeff in Florida just explained the origin story of browned butter

Great recipe. I added about half a cup of grated parm and a generous amount of fresh grated nutmeg. They were an absolute hit at thanksgiving dinner. This will definitely be my go-to method for mash from now on.

I used 1 clove of garlic for 5 lbs of russets and it was too much garlic. I don't know how anyone could eat this with a head of garlic! Ugh.I didn't even notice the browned butter because the garlic was so overwhelming.

I made three changes… Baked. not boiled the potatoes, mixed Russet with Yukon Gold, made the brown butter/milk mixture the day before, added peppercorns to the simmering milk… actually that was four changes, but so worth it!

Made for Thanksgiving- these were phenomenal. Husband and preschool aged children didn't really care, of course. But I was delighted.

My husband said “these are the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had in my life”

The ratio by weight is completely off. To match 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of milk, you need at least 6 lbs of potatoes. I went by weight and these potatoes would have been liquid if we had used all the butter/milk. Flavor is good but agree with others it's not so spectacular as to be worth the extra time and planning.