Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

What's the best way to reheat these if you decide to make them the day before?

To those who are asking how to reheat the potatoes, you can put them in the oven. If you put little fork marks all over the top first, and little bits of butter, you'll get a nice crispy brown crust. That's how my mother made them.

Catering trick to reheat cold mashed potatoes. Place in an oven proof dish and spread out. Pour cream over potatoes cover with foil put in 300 degree oven until steaming. As you add to serving dish whip with the fork until cream is incorporated. Adding a little more butter doesn't hurt either.

The Instant Pot was born for this. Peel, chunk and pressure cook 4 - 5 minutes, depending on quantity. I use the steamer insert, which prevents them from sitting in water. Perfect mash every time.

When I was living in Paris as a college student with an elderly couple, “mamman” made mashed potatoes this way but folded in a handful of finely grated Gruyère at the end. They were the most delectable mashed potatoes I ever had. I still make them that way. Merci, mamman!

Hot cream will not reheat cold potatoes.

I have made mashed potatoes a day or two before Thanksgiving dinner and rewarded them in a crockpot. They have always turned out perfectly.

So here is the tip my grandma gave me many years ago. When the potatoes are riced and still hot mix in a raw egg yolk. The heat of the potatoes will cook the egg through.It totally elevates the taste and it gives it a nice hue.

This recipe doesn't seem very practical. If I used a dinner fork to mash all the potatoes needed for a Thanksgiving meal it would take forever. And I don't see how mashed potatoes cold from the frig can possibly be rewarmed merely by adding a little hot cream.

I think the best way would be to reheat them in a microwave at medium power, checking them every couple minutes, until they're as warm as you like. Alternatively, if you don't have a microwave, you could put them, tightly covered with foil, in a low (300 degree) oven for probably 20 or 30 minutes.

I’ve always had success holding the heat or reheating mashed potatoes by heating them over a pot of gently simmering water. Per Julia, cover the potato bowl or pot partly with a lid, but never all the way. Let them breathe, I guess. Anyway, it works :)

I always make mashed a day or two before the holiday to keep the kitchen less hectic. I turn them into the baking/serving dish and refrigerate. On day of, put pats of butter across the top, cover with foil and bring to temp in 350 oven after you pull the turkey and let it rest. Pull the foil off to let them brown the last 20 minutes. Note: I'm less stingy with the cream & butter.

Looks like we are all wondering the same thing! A microwave?? The step 5 that Ann refers to below is for the cream being cold, not the potatoes.

Bain marie. Put the potatoes in a metal bowl, set it into a pot of barely simmering water, such that it's suspended a bit off the bottom of the pot, and cover; basically, a home-made double boiler. Lift the cover and stir from the bottom up from time to time be sure potatoes are heated evenly. They'll stay hot for some time and suffer no consequences re taste or texture. Just be sure the water doesn't evaporate.

Isn't that covered in step 5? "If cold, heat the cream in a large pot until steaming, then add to the potatoes..."? The hot cream will reheat the potatoes.