Two weeks out, the Thanksgiving menu is probably set. The mashed potatoes are on it, and they're the one dish that can go wrong in a way you can't take back.
The fix usually isn't the recipe. It's the tool you mash them with.
Below: why mashed potatoes turn gluey, the ricer we'd use, lump-free gravy, a crisper pie crust, and getting a glass cooktop clean before the crowd shows up.
Reply and tell us: are you team smooth or team lumpy? We read every one.
Why Mashed Potatoes Turn Gluey
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If your mashed potatoes have ever come out sticky and stretchy, the mixing did it. Too much mixing will break the starch cells and release the starch, and the whole pot turns gummy, per the Idaho Potato Commission.
That's why a blender, a food processor or a mixer on high is the fastest way to ruin them. The longer and faster the blades run, the more cells break.
Once it happens, there's no real undo. A chef quoted by The Takeout says the best you can do is disguise it: loosen the mash with warm stock and push it through a fine sieve into a smooth purée.
The potato matters too. Russets are 21% solids, which makes them dry, fluffy and more forgiving, per the commission. Reds are 18% solids and too moist for mashing. Yukon Golds hold their shape but can't take much mixing.
TLDR: solids are everything in a potato that isn't water. More solids means a drier, fluffier mash.
Here's the routine:
Cut russets into 1/2-inch chunks so they cook evenly.
Start them in cold, salted water. The commission uses about 1 teaspoon of salt for every 4 or 5 potatoes.
Cook them 25 to 30 minutes, until tender.
Drain, then let the steam escape in the hot pot.
Heat the milk and butter first. The commission's rule is hot liquid, not cold.
Rice or mash gently, by hand, never in a blender. Stop once they're smooth.
One more from the chef at The Takeout: stir in the butter while the potatoes are still hot.
Scroll down for the ricer we'd use.
Worth a Look
A Ricer That Keeps Mashed Potatoes Fluffy
If gluey potatoes have bitten you before, the OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 Adjustable Potato Ricer is the one we'd point you to, at $31.99 at time of writing.
A ricer presses cooked potato through small holes in one squeeze, so the starch gets one gentle pass instead of a beating. It's the fix from the section above, built into a tool.
A dial on the stainless steel disk switches between fine, medium and coarse, and OXO lists fine for fluffy mashed potatoes. It also handles turnips, carrots and spaetzle, and it's dishwasher safe. Here's the ricer on Amazon.
We haven't riced a holiday batch with this one ourselves. The specs and price come from its Amazon listing.
That said, it's a big tool, at 1.4 pounds and about 16 1/2 inches long, so check your utensil drawer. You'll also press in batches, not the whole pot at once.
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Lump-Free Gravy Starts Before the Pan
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Lumpy gravy usually comes down to how the thickener went in. Dry flour stirred straight into hot liquid tends to clump, so mix it with something first.
King Arthur Baking uses two ways:
Cook flour into fat (a roux). Its make-ahead gravy uses 6 tablespoons each of butter and flour for 4 cups of stock. Cook the butter and flour about 4 minutes, until it's light golden and smells nutty, then add hot stock a little at a time while you whisk.
Stir cornstarch into broth (a slurry). King Arthur mixes 2 to 3 tablespoons of cornstarch into 1/2 cup of room-temperature broth, then whisks it into the pan.
They behave differently once they're in. Flour gravy can simmer while you carve. Cornstarch gravy should come off the heat once it thickens, because King Arthur warns that more cooking will thin it.
Lumps anyway? Pour the gravy through a fine-mesh strainer, which is King Arthur's own last step. Nobody at the table will know.
And if the stove's going to be crowded, that roux recipe is built to be made ahead, so the gravy can be done before the turkey goes in.
The Pan Swap That Fixes a Soggy Pie Crust
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A pale, wet bottom crust is the classic pie letdown, and the pan is often why. King Arthur Baking says metal is crucial, because glass and ceramic pans don't move heat into the crust as well.
Then get heat right under it:
Set a pizza stone, baking steel or cast-iron skillet on a rack in the lower third of the oven.
Preheat it with the oven.
Bake the pie right on top of it, so the bottom gets heat first.
Slide a sheet pan onto a lower rack to catch drips.
No stone? Baking writer Dorie Greenspan sets her pie plate on a baking sheet to concentrate the heat on the base, per King Arthur.
Making pumpkin or another custard pie? Wet fillings get a partial blind bake first. King Arthur chills the crust 30 minutes, lines it, fills it with pie weights and bakes it at 375 F for 20 minutes. Then the weights come out, the filling goes in, and the crust finishes baking with it.
TLDR: blind baking means baking the crust empty, weighted down so it doesn't puff up, before the filling goes in.
Baking a juicy fruit pie instead? King Arthur sprinkles a crust dust of 1 teaspoon each of flour and sugar over the bottom crust before the filling goes in, so it soaks up some of the juice.
Clean a Glass Cooktop Without Scratching It
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A glass cooktop takes a beating in Thanksgiving week, and the wrong scrubber leaves marks that don't come out.
Whirlpool says never to use steel wool, abrasive powder cleansers, chlorine bleach, rust remover or ammonia on it. GE adds that sliding pots across the glass leaves metal marks, so lift them. It also says to check pan bottoms for nicks or rough spots before they go on the glass.
Here's the routine both makers describe:
Dab cooktop cleaning cream on the burned-on spot.
Hold a single-edge razor scraper at about 45 degrees and push it across the spot. GE says to keep a little cream under the blade.
Scrub with a non-scratch pad.
Wipe with a damp cloth and buff it dry.
The Cerama Bryte Cooktop Scraper & Pad Kit has the scraper and pad for $8.98 at time of writing.
Sugar is the exception. GE says a sugary spill or melted plastic can pit the glass if it isn't removed while hot, and that damage isn't covered by warranty. Put on an oven mitt and push it to a cool part of the cooktop with the scraper right away.
Renters, this one's all yours.
Worth a Look
A Porch Camera With a Wide View and a Close Look
For a porch you want to watch in full and still check up close, the aosu SolarCam T2 Pro is the one we'd start with, at $169.99 at time of writing.
Package season is when a porch camera pays off. The usual trouble is that a wide view makes everyone small, which is why the T2 Pro puts two cameras in one housing.
A fixed wide camera, listed at a 170-degree view, keeps the whole scene in frame. A second camera on a pan-and-tilt mount swings to a spot you tap in the app and follows the action, according to aosu. Both cameras are 3K, about 2,880 pixels across.
The solar panel detaches, so the camera can go where the view is and the panel where the sun is. Setup is three steps with no wiring, according to aosu.
That price is for one camera, and the aosuBase hub is not included. aosu says the hub adds storage at home and tracking across cameras, so check what one camera does without it before you buy.
We haven't tested this camera ourselves. The specs come from aosu's T2 Pro page, read on November 7, and the price is from aosu's store.
We compared the T2 Pro with the T2 Ultra in our guide to wide views and zoom. Gadget Review also wrote up aosu's base T2, which pairs a wide lens with a telephoto.
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One quick tap
Which part was most useful today?
That's Thursday: gluey mashed potatoes, a ricer, lump-free gravy, a crisper pie crust and a scratch-free cooktop.
If you only do one thing this week, put the blender away before the potatoes come off the stove.
Forward this to whoever in your house is on mashed potato duty.
See you tomorrow.
The Home Wire
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