Make-Ahead Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes

🦃 What makes this recipe special?

I use this potato recipe when I am cooking a big meal and want to save on burner space. It is a time saver, and I went from trying to cook potatoes while juggling all the other elements of my meal to making these potatoes first thing in the morning. 

The mashed potato recipe without the sous vide cooker is a solid classic, but the sous vide makes this recipe a game-changer. We cook the potatoes similar to many classic mashed potato recipes. Still, I will give some tools and tips so that you make sure you get fluffy, tasty potatoes every time. 

For me, the biggest strain on my stovetop is during the last few hours of cooking for a big meal like Thanksgiving. That is why these Make-Ahead Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes are perfect.

The first thing I do in the morning when I get up is make this recipe and sit it in my sous vide bath. I don’t have to do anything with them until I am ready to serve them!

Have you ever made mashed potatoes and realized they looked a bit off or like paste? They tasted just slightly different than when grandma made them?

I have the answers so you don’t ever have to get that again. My simple mashed potato tips and tools will have you making great taters every time. If you want to make a special meal, consider this Sous Vide Prime Rib for a main course, this German Potato Salad as a side dish, and our delicious All American Apple Pie for dessert. Whatever you make, make sure to treat yourself!

🥔 Ingredients

Potatoes are the star of this recipe, but our Sous Vide cooker helps. Also, a few other ingredients help make this a delicious mashed potato recipe.

• Russet potatoes
• Whole milk
• Salted butter
• Salt & Pepper

See the recipe card for quantities.

Kind Of Potato

The mighty Russet Potato is what I recommend for mashed potatoes. For one, they are economical, which is always a great thing, right? They are light on the pocketbook and really are great for mashed potatoes.

There are other potatoes at your grocery store and even a few strains of potato that work well for mashed potatoes. Still, the Russet is the most commonly available and works great, so I will stick with that. The Russet has a high starch content and helps ensure your end product is nice and fluffy.

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could use half Yukon Gold and half Russet. Yukon Gold is a tasty and flavorful potato I enjoy for roasting purposes. If I cook mashed potatoes with Yukon, I use both Russet and Yukon.

📗 Serving Size and Planning

When planning for mashed potatoes, you can plan for about ½ pound of potatoes per person. This recipe calls for 2 ½ lbs, so 5 servings. I am not going to lie. Mashed potatoes are my favorite part of most holidays, so if you invite me or anyone like me, maybe plan for a little bit more. 🙂

This recipe is tried and true for me at 2 ½ pounds but also double the recipe at 5 lbs. The only difference I have at 5 pounds is that I use two bags in the sous vide machine. I am not sure that is necessary, but I like to keep the bags somewhat light to ensure that my clips hold it on my stockpot.

🍲 Instructions

I am a little particular about how I cook my mashed potatoes, but that is only because I want them to taste great every time. Follow these instructions, and you will have nice, fluffy potatoes every time.

Peeling and Rinsing Potatoes

Part of making super fluffy mashed potatoes is starch management and that starts with cutting the potatoes appropriately. Too much starch in your end product can give you that gluey texture in your potatoes, but there are a few tips at the beginning of the process you can take to avoid this.

Peel and loosely chop the potatoes into about 1-inch chunks before adding them to boiling water. Before adding to the boiling water, rinse the potatoes under cold water, which will help wick away some of the starch. 

Once boiled and cooked until tender, rinse again, but this time I want to use really hot water. The water to rinse these potatoes should be about as hot as your sink faucet goes. If, however, you are serving these immediately and not using the sous vide, skip this step or rinse them with ultra-hot water.

Ricing your Potatoes

Do not use a food processor or hand blender to get great potatoes. The ultra-fast processing power of these tools combines with the starch to give a pasty, gluey texture that we don’t want in a fluffy mashed potato. Either use a hand masher or a ricer.

I use a potato ricer [Affiliate link]. It provides a surefire way to ensure no lumps in your mashed potatoes and does not work the potato as heavily as a food processor. 

A hand masher also works great, but a ricer is the most surefire way to make consistent potatoes. Besides, we have a ricer for other recipes, like our Lefse, so we might as well use it.

Warming Butter and Milk

Because the cooked potatoes are breifly under hot water, our temperature may be impacted, particularly if we add cold butter and milk. For this reason, I use both room-temperature butter and milk when incorporating them into the potatoes.

It is not quite as crucial if they are not served immediately and using the Sous Vide, as the machine will warm it back up. Still, it is a must if you are serving these potatoes immediately.

Sous Vide Machine

Sous Vide is a method of cooking where you immerse your covered food in a hot water bath and then cook it for long periods. The machine has precise temperature control and cycles water through it to ensure that it remains the same temperature.

It is an excellent tool for cooking steaks and I have made some of the best steaks of my life with this machine, but I found another great use for it in these Make Ahead Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes.

I cook my potatoes as outlined in the recipe, but then I just put them in a bag and let them sit in the water bath at 150° Farenheight until I am ready to serve. 

They taste just as do if they were straight off the oven. This method is superior to warming in a crock pot or slow cooker.

If you are reading this, it is because you already have a sous vide machine or you are interested. Here is a link to the Sous Vide Machine I use [Affiliate Link] and if you are looking for a useful and fun kitchen tool, consider ordering one today. They are excellent for these potatoes and awesome for meals like steak.

Other Tools

There are containers[affiliate link] and bags[affiliate link] explicitly meant for sous vide machines. I use a large stockpot, freezer bags, and clothespins to warm my potatoes. Use your own discretion and I follow the premise that it is safe to roll with the tools you might already have. Use your own judgment.

Removing Air From Bag

One concern about using sous vide for mashed potatoes is that we are also adding dairy to the product. Is milk supposed to sit at room temperature for long periods?

Not ideally, and room temperature is where many bacteria grow. In fact, the temperature danger zone for food safety is between 41° and 140° Fahrenheit. Fortunately, we are keeping this at a temperature of 150° Fahrenheit.

One aspect of bacteria growth is exposure to air. You can help mitigate this by removing as much air as possible from the bag of mashed potatoes.

❓ FAQ

🤷 Substitutions and variations

There are a few ways that this can be changed up.

• Type of potato – I use russet potatoes, but other potatoes can work.
• Milk – I use whole milk, but 2%, skim, or heavy cream can also be used with varying results.
• Garlic – Boil some garlic with the potatoes to add a bit of that flavor. Rice them right in with the potatoes. 

📦 Storage

Mashed potatoes will last in the fridge for a few days, so once this is cooked, just store in a covered container in your refrigerator. 

I never let this sit in the sous vide bath for more than 10 hours, but I would imagine this should be good for up to one full day.

📝 Tips and tricks

• Use Russet Potatoes
• Make sure you are rinsing the potatoes
• Use room temperature milk and butter to ensure potatoes remain hot
• This recipe can be made without the sous vide. Just serve immediately
• Use clothespins or chip clips to keep top of sous vide freezer bag out of water

🛠 Products used in this recipe

• Sous Vide
• Sous Vide Bags
• Sous Vide Bath
• Potato Ricer
• Large Stock Pot

😋 Did you make this recipe?

That is awesome, and thank you so much for giving this Make Ahead Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes recipe a try. If you could leave a rating in the comment area below, it would be greatly appreciated. This lets me know how I am doing and also helps others decide if they want to make this recipe. Most of all, thanks for visiting Ramshackle Pantry.