Recipes - Main & Side Dishes

[Front-Ranger]

There seem to be quite a few people for whom macaroni and cheese is a traditional Thanksgiving dinner element.

According to this site, mac and cheese is the third most popular side dish for Thanksgiving!

Here are a couple of the many charts with circles and arrows that deconstruct the Thanksgiving plate in great detail! I agree that mashed potatoes is way up there in popularity, but I don't think it's THAT easy to make. There are things that can go wrong and the way I make it, it takes a couple of hours! Stuffing is difficult to get right too, I believe.

[CellarDweller]

Hmmm.....I've never seen mac and cheese on any thanksgiving table.  I'm also surprised to see Brussels sprouts so high up on the chart.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Hmmm.....I've never seen mac and cheese on any thanksgiving table.

It was on the White House table this year.

I never heard of it, either, until one Thanksgiving many years ago, I saw some sports reporter on local TV news ask members of the Philadelphia Eagles football team what they were looking forward to eating at Thanksgiving--or something like that--and they all said, "Macaroni and cheese."

I agree that mashed potatoes is way up there in popularity, but I don't think it's THAT easy to make. There are things that can go wrong and the way I make it, it takes a couple of hours!

Mashed potatoes difficult? A couple of hours to make 'em?  

[southendmd]

Mashed potatoes difficult? A couple of hours to make 'em?  

WTF?  Mashed potatoes should take only about 20 minutes tops.  Boil the potatoes, skin on, if you like.  I like Yukon Golds.  Boil them with a clove of garlic, and it comes out mellow and subtle.  Mash away with a masher of your choice.  Add lots of butter, add hot milk and whisk away.  Done.

[Front-Ranger]

I clocked it this year. I boil the potatoes in their "jackets" from a cold water start. When they're tender, I let them cool in a strainer in the sink. I save the potato water for soup or my plants. When they're cool I peel them and put them in a bowl in the fridge. The next day I mash them with butter and milk and add salt and pepper to taste. I then heat them up again in a pan. The whole process takes a couple of hours! You left out the cooling, peeling, and taste testing while adding milk, butter, salt and pepper!

[Jeff Wrangler]

WTF?  Mashed potatoes should take only about 20 minutes tops.  Boil the potatoes, skin on, if you like.  I like Yukon Golds.  Boil them with a clove of garlic, and it comes out mellow and subtle.  Mash away with a masher of your choice.  Add lots of butter, add hot milk and whisk away.  Done.

Well, that's what I was thinking, but I didn't have the balls to go into the details.

I like Yukon Golds, too.

When I was a kid, mashing the potatoes was always my dad's job, for some reason. When I had to furnish my first apartment, for graduate school, I made sure my mother got me a really good potato masher, as close to the one she had as possible. 

I clocked it this year. I boil the potatoes in their "jackets" from a cold water start. When they're tender, I let them cool in a strainer in the sink. I save the potato water for soup or my plants. When they're cool I peel them and put them in a bowl in the fridge. The next day I mash them with butter and milk and add salt and pepper to taste. I then heat them up again in a pan. The whole process takes a couple of hours! You left out the cooling, peeling, and taste testing while adding milk, butter, salt and pepper!

I'm sure the outcome is quite delicious, but I'm afraid that still sounds like an awful lot of fuss for mashed potatoes, one of the easiest, simplest comfort foods around.

Incidentally, my mother always used to add water from boiling the potatoes to the pan drippings to make gravy. That always made really good gravy.

[southendmd]

Cooling?  Whatever for?  I just drain them and mash them while they're still hot.  Skin on.

Jeff, I'll bet the potato water has a bit of starch, which probably helps to thicken a gravy.  Nice idea. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Cooling?  Whatever for?  I just drain them and mash them while they're still hot.  Skin on.

Yeah. I've heard of cooling cookie dough in the refrigerator over night before baking, but this is the first I've heard of doing it to potatoes for mashing.

Jeff, I'll bet the potato water has a bit of starch, which probably helps to thicken a gravy.  Nice idea.  

Yup, I'm sure it's starch from the potatoes. Mother may even have said as much; I don't remember for sure. I do remember that she said she learned to do that from my grandmother/her mother, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Grandma learned it from my great-grandmother/her mother. They were all basically rural women, and that's how cooking was learned, from mother to daughter.

Mother and Grandma also always included a small piece of pork when they made a roast of beef. They said the mixed beef and pork drippings made a better tasting gravy.

I've never made mashed potatoes with the skins on, but, here again, I'm cooking like the women before me!    They never had fancy potatoes like Yukon Gold, just whatever regular old potatoes with thick skins that had to be peeled for cooking.

[Front-Ranger]

I cook the potatoes "in their jackets" because the skins and next to the skin is where most of the nutrients are. Then, I have to cool them before peeling because, well, ouch!

[CellarDweller]

yeah, burns are no fun!