Idaho Potato Commission

Mashed Potato Recipes…Milk, Cream, Sour Cream or Buttermilk?

Dr. Potato, when it comes to Thanksgiving mashed potato recipes, what is your preference? Do you prefer milk, cream, sour cream or cream cheese?

That’s a really good question, I have a couple of ways to answer this. As Dr. Potato, I usually have a bag or some larger sized russets in the pantry and milk in the refrigerator. So, the most convenient way to make mashed potatoes that doesn’t take a quick trip to the store is to use milk, sometimes even 1% or 2%, and then add in melted butter to the warm milk when mixing into the mashed potatoes. My personal choice if we have a chance to shop is to actually add buttermilk to the mashed potatoes, which can make them creamy and also give the mixture a little more of a tangy flavor as it is high in lactic acid. It makes them slightly thicker too. This version makes me think of my Mom’s cooking, as she grew up on a farm in the South and we often had buttermilk for making pancakes, or in an egg/buttermilk mixture for French toast batter.

The other way to answer the question is to show you some examples of recipes we have on file that incorporate milk, cream, sour cream and buttermilk so you can try each over a period of time. Mix it up this year and pick one of the options instead of the “usual.”

Mashed Potato Recipes Made With Milk:

https://idahopotato.com/recipes/confetti-mashed-idaho-potatoes