The best way to reheat that delicious mashed potato

It’s winter, and a regular dose of soft, creamy, velvety mashed potato seems entirely appropriate to us. We showed you earlier how to make Joël Robuchon’s most delicious mashed potato, but of course it could easily happen that the entire bowl doesn’t get finished in one go. Then you’ll have some tasty leftovers for the next day. But how do you prevent ruining the mash when reheating it?

Velvety mash is delicious, but gummy, slimy mash is downright disgusting. That’s why we’re telling you here how best to reheat mashed potato.

Under the microscope

But first, it’s useful to know that the starch in potatoes generally consists of two types: amylose and amylopectin. The former is found in higher concentrations in floury potatoes, the latter in waxy potatoes. These starch molecules have a crystalline structure and expand when heated with moisture (as happens when making mash). As long as the starch is warm, the mash has a smooth, creamy texture. That’s what you want.

The science of mash

But when the starch cools, it gelatinises (amylose slightly more than amylopectin). This makes the mash stickier (which also happens when the potatoes are worked too vigorously – which is why you should never make mash with a mixer or food processor). The starch undergoes a process called retrogradation; the starch granules release some moisture again and the structure crystallises slightly. The whole lot thickens again. The challenge is to return the mashed potatoes to that state of creaminess and airiness when reheating them, without the heat resulting in a texture that resembles wallpaper paste.

Little by little

This seems to work best when you can control the temperature while reheating. Applying too much heat too quickly can result in that same glue-like sludge. There are of course different ways to reheat something, but the microwave is the easiest to use. This may not be a popular method, at least not among people who were left with a bowl of wallpaper paste after pressing the high-power boost button a few times, but with careful use it can work very well.

Here’s the best way to reheat mashed potato in the microwave

• Put the mash in a suitable bowl or dish and add a spoonful of cream.
• Cover tightly with microwave-safe cling film, set the microwave to half power and turn it on for 1 minute.
• Stir the mash, check how warm it is now, and repeat this in sixty-second intervals at fifty percent power.
• Voilà: silky, fluffy mash for another evening! Eat it with a tender chicken fillet, or simply on its own: the ultimate comfort food with some butter and toppings.

Also read:

• Snoop Dogg’s mashed potato
• 18 things you’d better not put in the microwave
• Hack: cleaning the microwave

Source: The Spruce