Ben Johnson

Joule® Turbo Sous Vide

1-gallon Ziplock-style freezer bag(s)

1-gallon Vacuum-seal bag(s)

Vacuum sealer

Fine-mesh strainer

3-quart Saucepan

Food mill

Potato ricer

Whisk

Yukon Gold potato(es)

Milk

Unsalted butter

Kosher salt

White pepper

This recipe will work with other types of potatoes, like russets or fingerlings. Fingerlings are quite similar to French ratte potatoes, which are the ones typically used for pomme purée, but they’re more of a pain to peel. If you do use fingerlings, start with 950 g unpeeled potatoes, which should give you about 910 g after peeling.

Russets are starchier than Yukon Golds or fingerlings and will produce a slightly less silky pomme purée. Make sure not to overwork the purée, especially when using Russets, as it can become gluey.

Before we begin

Heat sous vide water bath to [f 194].

Heat sous vide bath

Place sliced potatoes, milk, butter, salt, and a pinch of white pepper in a large vacuum-seal bag, or double-bag in 1-gallon ziplock-style freezer bags.

Seal bag using water displacement method or vacuum sealer.

NOTE: When cooking sous vide at temperatures above [f 150], sealing bags using the water displacement method in the heated sous vide bath can be uncomfortable (we don’t want you to poach your fingers!). We recommend sealing the bag in the bath before it comes up to temp, or in a separate container of room temperature water.

Bag up potatoes

When you are cooking heavy food or cooking at temperatures above [f 158], the seams of ziplock-style bags can fail and expose food to water from the sous vide bath. When cooking a recipe like this, opt for heavy-duty vacuum-seal bags designed for sous vide cooking if possible; if you must use ziplock-style bags, double-bag to reduce the chance of bag failure.

Place ingredients in a 1-gallon ziplock-style freezer bag, then place bag in a second 1-gallon ziplock-style freezer bag. Seal using water displacement method and proceed with recipe.

No vacuum-seal bags? Double-bag it.

Cook until potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes.

Cook potatoes sous vide

Strain contents of bag into a fine-mesh strainer set over a 3-quart saucepan. Transfer potatoes to a food mill or ricer; set fine-mesh strainer aside. Working quickly, pass potatoes into saucepan with strained butter-milk mixture.

Pass potatoes through food mill

Set saucepan over low heat and whisk until potatoes and butter mixture are well combined and emulsified into a smooth purée, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

Whisk potatoes into butter mixture

Working quickly while potato mixture is still hot, pass purée through reserved fine-mesh strainer into a serving bowl, working in batches and using a plastic bowl scraper to push purée through strainer.

Season potatoes with more salt and white pepper to taste if needed. Serve immediately.

Pass purée and serve

Pomme purée can be made in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

If preparing potatoes in advance, transfer purée to a 1-gallon freezer ziplock-style bag and press to distribute purée in an even, flat layer. 

To <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-a-simple-and-stress-free-way-to-reheat-almost-anything">reheat</a>, submerge sealed bag in a preheated [f 140] sous vide bath and cook until warmed through, about 1 hour.

Make-ahead and storage

Smooth and creamy potato purée is one of the simplest and most satisfying things to eat in the world. Lots of cooks have their own tried-and-true methods for silky Robuchon-style potatoes, but we believe our sous vide method is the easiest. (Our low-fi <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/perfect-pomme-puree">stovetop version</a> is great, too.)We bag up and cook thinly sliced potatoes with milk and butter and cook them until tender. Instead of using a blender or food processor to whip the potatoes, which often leads to a gluey paste, we pass them through a food mill, whisk them into the milk and melted butter used to cook them, and then pass the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to produce a super-smooth purée. The finished potatoes have a rich, undiluted flavor because they’ve been infused only with butter and milk, without any flavor loss from simmering the spuds in water. This is pomme purée you can be proud of, and it’s perfect every time.EDITORS’ NOTE: We read the comments, and we heard you! We retested and updated this recipe’s method so you don’t have to pass the purée through a #10 and #50 sieve. (We get it: Not a lot of home cooks have those.) Instead, we call for ricing the cooked potatoes through a food mill or potato ricer and then passing the potato-milk-butter mixture through a fine-mesh strainer. We also adjusted the thickness of the sliced potatoes down to 1/4-inch and increased the cooking time to 45 minutes to ensure that the potatoes are fully tender before passing them.

Sous Vide Pomme Purée