Ideal potato variety for mashed potatoes

Mashed potatoes are one of the easiest and most nutritious dishes to prepare. Its taste and appearance largely depend on what kind of potato is used for cooking. You need boiled tubers with a high starch content. What potato varieties and hybrids meet these requirements?

What kind of potatoes are suitable for mashed potatoes

All potato varieties are divided into 4 groups based on how boiled the vegetable is... Each group is assigned a letter of the Latin alphabet, which marks both varieties and seeds. In Russia, such a classification is not widespread, although someday it will appear in our country:

1. A - potatoes of this group have dense flesh and hardly boil over. Suitable for salads where vegetables are cut into small cubes.
2. B - the pulp is firm, but not as strong as in the first group. Moderately boiled potatoes, suitable for salads and frying.
3. C - starchy pulp, soft, boiled well.
4. D - very starchy mealy varieties that almost completely crumble during cooking.

Whether the potatoes will be boiled and whether they are suitable for mashed potatoes depends on starch content in tubers.

To check for friability, the vegetable is cut into 2 halves and rubbed together... If they stick together, they are group C or D. If there are drops of water between the halves, this is a dense, non-starchy type A or B, suitable for frying and salads.

Attention! Usually, the most boiled varieties of mashed potatoes have a medium to late ripening period. Early crops simply do not have time to accumulate enough starch.

The most crumbly varieties of mashed potatoes

Potatoes high in starch:

1. Riviera... Tubers are medium in size, oval in shape. The pulp is granular, creamy. The rind is thick, light beige. The starch content is 11.5-15.9%. The variety is early maturing, tolerates drought, but is susceptible to late blight. The yield is high: 134-225 c / ha at the first digging, 273-312 c / ha - at the second.
2. Bellarosa... The tubers are round, medium in size. The peel is reddish, the flesh is light yellow. The amount of starch is 12.6-15.7%. The variety is resistant to diseases, early maturing, high-yielding. At the first digging, 143–277 c / ha are harvested, at the second - 170–385 c / ha.
3. Tiras... An early variety with a high yield - 210-460 c / ha. Tubers are pinkish, oblong in shape. The pulp is light yellow. The starch content is 10-15%. Potatoes have an average resistance to late blight.
4. Luck (pictured below). The tubers are light beige, rich in nutrients and vitamins. They contain 12-15% starch. The variety is early maturing, moderately susceptible to late blight. Marketable yield - 300-500 kg / ha. Vegetables are stored for a long time.

Ideal potatoes for boiling

Which potatoes are best for frying and boiling? Russian and Belarusian varieties belonging to group C or D are boiled down enough. The Dutch and German varieties have dense tubers that are good for roasting and deep-frying.

By the way! One of the signs of starchiness in potatoes is white flesh and rough skin.

Fast-cooking potato varieties:

1. Blue... The plants have blue-white flowers, hence the name of the variety. The culture is mid-season, high-yielding - 400-500 kg / ha. Tubers of group C or D, starch they contain 17-19%. Vegetables are oval light beige with creamy pulp.
2. Zhuravinka... Middle late culture. It is unpretentious in care, gives 177–242 centners per hectare of potatoes. Tubers are oval-rounded red, the flesh is light. The starch content is high - 14.6–19.6%.
3. Kiwi (photo on the right).The potato has a rough, mesh-like surface. Ripens for a long time - up to 120 days. The variety is high yielding, pest resistant. Light brown rounded vegetables. The pulp is creamy. The starch content is high.
4. Elizabeth... Medium early variety with high productivity - 290–400 c / ha. Tubers are white with a smooth skin and light flesh. The starch content is 12–18.4%. Suitable for mashing.
5. Aurora... The variety is mid-season, resistant to various climatic conditions. The peel of the tubers is reddish, oval in shape, the flesh is creamy. Average starch content - 13.5-17.3%. The taste is excellent.

Red or white potatoes for cooking

There are many hybrids and varieties of crops on sale with different colors of tubers - from beige and yellow to red and pink. According to the degree of starchiness, white and yellow potatoes are suitable for mashed potatoes.

Red is more suitable for frying: due to the low content of starch, it sticks less to the pan. However, there are hybrids with red and pink tubers that boil well. Therefore, the main thing when choosing vegetables is the rule of "stickiness".

Cooking tricks

It's easy to make mashed potatoes, but there are some nuances here.:

1. Overcooked potatoes will only improve the taste of the dish. Hardy tubers are difficult to knead in mashed potatoes, and pieces remain in the finished dish.
2. A little water is poured into the pan so that the potatoes are steamed more.
3. To cook the vegetables better and faster, they are completely peeled and cut into large pieces.
4. After the end of cooking, the water is poured into a separate bowl. Little by little, liquid is added to the puree, making it softer.
5. To create a delicious dish, take half the water in which the potatoes were cooked and half the fresh milk.
6. Do not add cold water to the product - this will lose the taste and attractive color. It is advisable to boil the tubers in an enamel pot - they become grayish in an aluminum and iron pan.
7. Before adding water and milk to mashed potatoes, salt the puree. The liquid will dissolve the salt, and when stirred, it will be evenly distributed throughout the mass.

The final touch - add a little butter to the even hot puree to give a special taste.

Conclusion

Potatoes with a high starch content are suitable for mashed potatoes. Most often these are white or yellow varieties: Riviera, Tiras, Bellarosa, Zhuravinka, Aurora and others. The starchiness of a potato is determined by cutting it in half: if you rub the halves against each other, they will stick together in a boiled vegetable.

To make the mashed potatoes especially tasty, boil the tubers in a little water, use the cooking water and milk when kneading, add a piece of butter at the end.