Don't make boring mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving. Follow this technique.
Smooth, creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes are one of the favorite ingredients of many Thanksgiving dinners. In fact, some people have described mashed potato as the glue that knits the Thanksgiving feast together. Though, please be aware that glue is not necessarily the consistency you’re going for when creating this particular Thanksgiving dish. Mashed potatoes have been on the dinner menus of America since the 18th century. In 1747, what’s believed to be the first-ever recipe for mashed potatoes appeared in the culinary classic, The Art of Cookery by the English author Hannah Glasse. And we’ve been mashing our potatoes ever since.
Watch the video to learn how to make the perfect mashed potato for your Thanksgiving dinner.
How did the potato become a Thanksgiving dinner staple?
America’s favorite vegetable has a long history. Potatoes were grown by the Incas of Peru as long ago as 8,000 BC. In the 16th century, Spanish colonists in Peru came across the vegetable and transported potatoes back to Europe. Surprisingly, it was not initially a hit with Europeans who didn’t find the starchy vegetable very palatable. But eventually, potatoes became an acquired taste. And over the next few decades, their popularity spread across the continent.
Potatoes first arrived on these shores in the 1620s as a gift from the governor of the Bahamas to his counterpart in the colony of Virginia. As in Europe, potatoes were slow to catch on. But when Thomas Jefferson began serving them in the White House in the early 1800s, a new American staple was born.
However, potatoes didn’t become a feature of the Thanksgiving menu until some sixty years later. Serving them on Turkey Day became popular after novelist Sarah Josepha Hale, who some call the Mother of Thanksgiving, put mashed potatoes on a holiday menu in one of her novels.
How many potatoes do Americans eat at Thanksgiving?
We consume around 250 million pounds of potatoes in various forms over the Thanksgiving holiday. And in a survey by the public opinion and data company, YouGov, mashed potatoes were the second favorite Thanksgiving dish, polling just below turkey as a holiday treat we love to eat.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to make perfect mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner
