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Okay, come the holiday season, let’s be real — when I sit down to a holiday feast, I know I’ll be diving into the bowl of mashed potatoes. Despite loving the starchy side dish, it’s hard to come across as good, and I mean going back for seconds good, mashed potatoes. To avoid creating Frankenstein-like potato cement, here are some tips!

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You don’t have to use all of these tricks, but if you do, you’re guaranteed to have smooth and rich potatoes.

Even Diced

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Consistency is crucial. When prepping your potatoes, cut the potatoes into even pieces, that way your potatoes all cook evenly and be done at the same time. Having both overcooked and undercooked potatoes will make for a lumpy consistency.

Mash First, Add Second

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Once cooked through, you want to return your potatoes to the same pot. On low heat, you mash the potatoes and only the potatoes — no butter, milk, or seasonings. Why? You want to break down the potato’s structure completely, when you add the other ingredients, you won’t be able to break down the potato further. The result? Gooey over mashed, lumpy potatoes. You only need four to five minutes of potato mashing before adding the remaining ingredients.

Rice It

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If you feel like your masher isn’t cutting it, then you can amp up your mashed potato game with this special tool — a ricer. Ricers compress the cooked potato through fine, tiny holes which streamline the whole mashing-part of the mashed potatoes. Ricing cooked potatoes remove the lumps. If you use a ricer, simply add your other ingredients to the potatoes and stir away.

Cream Cheese Is The Key

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Sure, you can add browned butter, buttermilk, or sour cream, but cream cheese is the ultimate trick up the sleeve. The cream cheese gives the mashed potatoes richness and delivers a subdued tang that doesn’t taste away from the potatoes. When adding cream cheese to your mashed potato recipe, substitute half of the butter for cream cheese, and make sure you let the cream cheese be very soft before you add it to the potatoes.

Cream Of The Crop

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When you need to add a bit of moisture to your mashed potatoes, reach for the Cadillac of dairy products — heavy cream. A splash of room-temperature heavy cream will smooth out your mashed potatoes without making them too wet. If you add too much cream by accident, you can warm your potatoes on the stovetop, the heat will evaporate the excess moisture.

Save The Seasonings For Last

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After, and only after, the boiling, mashing, adding, and stirring is when you add your ingredients like salt and pepper. If you season too early you’re at risk of over or under-seasoning your side dish.