Food Fight

Long-simmering controversies about cooking.

This month: Perfect Mashed Potatoes — Whipped or Lumpy?

A mound of mashed potatoes shaped like a broad volcano, with a pool of butter melting in the crater, looks like the perfect accompaniment to roast chicken, Easter lamb, Thanksgiving turkey. But what is the "proper" consistency for the potatoes? Should they be whipped to a creamy smoothness? Put through a potato ricer or food mill? Mashed by hand, with the risk of lumps?

Your preference might be based more on family custom than potato physiology. We know of some households where mashed potatoes are always called "whipped" potatoes, and they are made in a food processor or large mixer, with nary a lump. They are smooth and creamy, and you might like your potatoes that way.

I have come to prefer a few lumps as the price of a dry, fluffy texture, and here’s why. When cooked potatoes are mashed too vigorously, overworking them can rupture the cell walls, allowing gummy starch particles trapped inside the cells to escape. This can easily create mashed potatoes that are gluey, almost like paste, especially if a steel-bladed food processor or electric mixer is used.

If you find that slightly drier, fluffier mashed potatoes are more to your liking, always start with high-starch, mealy potatoes such as Idahoes and russets (the potatoes that tend to have thicker skins). Use a hand-masher, and don’t worry about a few lumps. Make them just before serving time, and mash the potatoes in a vertical rather than stirring motion. Add butter, salt, and a small amount of milk, and stop before you reach total smoothness. Then your mashed potatoes will be light, a bit dry, and fluffy — perfect for absorbing gravy or meat juices.

Last Bite

Out Like a Lamb

If March comes in like a lion, says the old weather proverb, it will go out like a lamb. In a month known for blustery winds and fast-moving storms, there’s always a pretty good chance the proverb will come true. This year, Easter falls on the last day of March, so no matter what the weather brings, March will go out with thoughts of lamb.

At least, it will in our household. Leg of lamb is one of my favorite holiday meals. I prefer to serve the meat with fruit salsa or chutney rather than vinegary mint sauce (or worse, emerald green mint jelly). Fresh asparagus is a must. Green beans are nice too, and the above-mentioned mashed potatoes (lumpy style, lots of butter).

I’ve tried several different recipes over the years, but always come back to "Gigot à la Moutarde" (lamb with herbal mustard coating) in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I. The lamb is painted with the fragrant mixture several hours before roasting. The meat stays juicy and turns a beautiful brown as it cooks.

Here’s how to do it:
Several hours before roasting, combine 1/2 cup Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 clove mashed garlic, 1 teaspoon ground rosemary or thyme, and 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger in a bowl. Beat in 2 tablespoons olive oil, drop by drop, to make a mayonnaise-like cream.

Using a brush or spatula, paint the mixture over the surface of a 6-pound leg of lamb and set the lamb on the rack of a roasting pan.

Roast the meat in a 350°F oven for 1 to 1-1/4 hours for medium rare, up to 1-1/2 hours for well done.