Choose your own adventure: do you like them fluffy, creamy, garlicky, or cheesy?
Design by Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed. Photos by Lauren Zaser / BuzzFeed
Cut potatoes, boil potatoes, drain potatoes, mash potatoes, mix in dairy and any extra ingredients. But, it's important to know how to make mashed potatoes exactly the way you like them.
There are three variables that will have a big impact on your mashed potatoes:
1. The type of potato you use
2. The kind of dairy you add (plus any extra ingredients for flavor)
3. The tool you use to mash the potatoes
Choose your favorite, then learn exactly what it takes to make them.
Mashed potato purists want their spuds to be starchy, fluffy clouds of magic. These mashed potatoes are perfect for soaking up puddles of gravy. HOW TO DO IT: 1) use only starchy potatoes, 2) add milk, cream, and butter, 3) press with a potato ricer.
Design by Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed. Photo by Lauren Zaser / BuzzFeed
