Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

The best fluffy mashed potatoes are the ones you can flop a spoonful of on a plate and they’ll hold their shape. They’re designed to be sculpted into a well and filled with gravy.Thing is, you can get that effect with not-so fluffy mashed potatoes, too. You know the ones: gummy and leaden, you reach for the butter before you even think about the gravy.Making good fluffy mashed potatoes just comes down to three things: managing the amount of water in the cooked potatoes, breaking them down into very fine particles, and avoiding overworking their starches.To minimize the amount of moisture in the cooked potatoes, we recommend using russet potatoes, since they’re mealy potatoes and their cells tend to swell more during cooking than other varieties, which gives them a drier texture. Careful cooking helps, too; you want to simmer the russets until they’re tender but not falling apart. As soon as they start to fall apart, there are all sorts of opportunities for the cooking water to be absorbed. Once you drain them, it also helps to let them steam a bit in the dry pot, to further dry them out.To prevent overworking them, and to break them down into tiny, consistently sized particles, it’s very important to use either a ricer or a food mill, both of which will get the job done very quickly. Once they’re milled or riced, it’s all about speed, and stopping yourself from over-mixing. Heating the butter and milk before adding them to the potatoes keeps the mixture hot, which facilitates even whisking, and once most of the dairy is incorporated you can use a spatula to finish off the job with gentle folding.

Fluffy Mashed Potatoes