Let’s talk about the potatoes you should never mash. These are the waxy ones: Red Bliss, new potatoes, and fingerlings. They’re beautiful in salads, great roasted with rosemary, and perfect for boiling whole. But for mash? They’re a disaster waiting to happen.
Waxy potatoes hold their shape because they have less starch and more sugar. When you mash them, they turn into a sticky, gluey paste that clings to your fork like gum on a hot sidewalk. It’s the potato equivalent of trying to make a sandcastle out of wet beach mud—it just doesn’t work.
I learned this the hard way at a Thanksgiving potluck. I grabbed a bag of “mixed baby potatoes” thinking I was being fancy. My mash looked like wallpaper paste. Everyone politely ate around it. Don’t be me. Be better.
