It’s a pretty fun experience to think you’ve really got something basic down and that after a decade of making something spot-on again and again, you happen to learn of a TikTok trend that flips that completely upside down. I welcome learning any new trick that makes one of my favorites even better, and that is definitely the case today for mashed potatoes.

Mashed potatoes are one of my ultimate comfort foods, like they are for many other people. After a decade of tweaking them. I feel like I’ve got a good thing going by adding plenty of butter and any combination of heavy cream, cream cheese or sour cream and using a true potato masher (which is a total game changer!). However, this simple trick I’m going to share today adds so much more flavor right when you are cooking the potatoes and there is no way you can mess this up!

I think mashed potatoes get kind of a bad rap for being fussy and turning out bad in all kinds of ways--gluey, lumpy, flavorless, cold, etc. With this tip from Food Network chef Tyler Florence, at least your mashed potatoes will have the very best flavor and the rest of the outcome is all up to you ;) (pssst…I’m telling you--it’s all in the potato masher!)

We all know that traditionally mashed potatoes are cooked in water, drained completely, and then cream (or milk) and butter are added at the end. However, Tyler’s secret is to cook the potatoes in the cream itself, so that none of that amazing flavor is lost in the process.

Tyler explains that since potatoes have that delicate mineral taste we all love--when you cook them in water and dump that water down the drain after they are done cooking, you are dumping all that flavor with it. You’ve extracted all the flavor of the potato. So instead, he suggests cooking them with cream and butter and saving the liquid to incorporate back into the mashed potatoes.

How to Make Tyler Florence’s Best Mashed Potatoes

1. Add cold, peeled, chopped potatoes, cream and butter and olive oil to a pan. To a pot of three pounds of potatoes, he adds enough half and half or cream to barely cover the potatoes. 

2. Add any herbs you would like, such as peeled garlic, bunches of sage, rosemary or thyme. You will pull these out later--you are simply using them while cooking the potatoes to infuse these flavors, if you would like.

3. Add at least 1 teaspoon of salt so the potatoes can absorb some of that flavor while cooking.

4. Cover the pot and allow to simmer on medium heat until potatoes become fork tender--about 20 minutes.

5. When the potatoes are tender, put a large bowl on the counter and a colander inside the bowl. Pour the potatoes through the colander and the flavorful cream will collect on the bottom. Remove any of the herb stems.

6. Add the potatoes back into the pot and take the potato-infused garlic cream and fold that back into the potatoes, and voila! You will have the most incredible potato flavor profile you thought possible!

Try this tip of using cream while cooking the potatoes and collecting that cream as you drain the potatoes to incorporate it back into the potatoes and see if this gives you the secret to make the best mashed potatoes you’ve ever had! Do you have any other secret tips for making your best mashed potatoes? I’m always up for learning more from our readers--you always have such great ideas!