Sous-Vide Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

Name: Sous-Vide Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
Total time: 2 h 15 min
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Cuisine: american
Ingredients: 4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed; 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature; 12 ounces mild Cheddar, coarsely grated (3 cups); 2/3 cup sour cream, at room temperature; 1/2 cup grated Parmesan; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; 1/4 cup hot milk, plus more as needed; 1/2 cup chopped chives (optional)

By Melissa Clark

Total Time: 2¼ hours
Rating: 4(131)
Comments: Read comments

Savory Cheddar and Parmesan, along with sour cream for tang, are the keys to this rich, flavorful mash. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can use it to seal the potatoes into their sous-vide bags before cooking; this makes them easier to weigh down so they stay submerged. Once the potatoes are done, you can also keep them warm alongside the sous-vide turkey breast, if you’re making it: 145 degrees, the temperature at which the turkey breast is cooked, is the perfect temperature to hold the potatoes. If you don’t have a sous-vide machine, you can boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, then drain and mash them, and proceed with Step 2. You might not need the milk since boiled potatoes will have a higher moisture content than those cooked by sous vide.

Featured in: Your Thanksgiving Helper? The Sous-Vide Machine

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Ingredients

Yield:10 to 12 servings

4pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1½teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
7tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
12ounces mild Cheddar, coarsely grated (3 cups)
⅔cup sour cream, at room temperature
½cup grated Parmesan
½teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼cup hot milk, plus more as needed
½cup chopped chives (optional)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
In a large pot or heatproof container, use a sous-vide machine to heat water to 194 degrees. Evenly divide potatoes and 1½ teaspoons salt between two large reusable silicone sous-vide bags or resealable plastic bags. Slowly lower the bag into the water, allowing any air to escape. Weigh down the bags; an upside-down metal steamer basket or a metal bowl work well for this, topped with a metal spoon or tongs for extra weight, if needed. Cook until potatoes are completely tender, poking them several times to make sure, 1½ to 2 hours. (Check the bag after 15 minutes; you may have to let out some steam.)
Step 2
As potatoes cook, add butter, Cheddar, sour cream, Parmesan, pepper and nutmeg to a large bowl. Add the hot potatoes and milk, and mash until the cheese melts and the mixture is as smooth as you like it, adding more hot milk if the potatoes seem dry. You can also use a potato ricer to rice the potatoes into the bowl before mixing with the cheese. Just make sure the potatoes and milk are hot, or the cheese might not melt.
Step 3
Taste and add more salt, if you like. Serve immediately, or transfer potatoes back to sous-vide bag to keep warm. Fold in chives just before serving.

Ratings

4 out of 5

131 user ratings

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Comments

RoRider5 years ago

Seems like a poor use for the sous-vide method. Better, and much faster, to boil the potatoes, complete the recipe and, if needed, hold in a sous-vide bag (either vacuum sealed or water displacement method) for serving. 1.5 - 2 hours to cook potatoes without other flavors seems silly. Better to slice carrots, place butter, ginger, and a bit of orange juice into the sous-vide bag and cook that at 194 F for 2 hours. Flavorful carrots that are ready to serve.

Josh L5 years ago

Depends on your kitchen. The point is sometimes to take an entire dish (even an especially important one like mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving) and cook it with great confidence outside of your oven and off of your range. We are Americans living in Canada and we celebrate thanksgiving twice each year. We did the mashed potatoes sous bide in early October and we will do them again this way this week. They were the best I’ve ever had.

Adam5 years ago

The reason the sous vide is used is to avoid soaking the potatoes in flavorless water. It makes an entirely different, and better, mashed potato. It is also easier than cooking the potatoes traditionally. Essentially, everything in your comment is incorrect. Obviously you can still do the carrots in the same bath (separate bag) as the potatoes.

Eggnut1 month ago

@RoRider Agree! the payoff isnt worth the time investment here. if you are cooking for a crowd, or dont want to attend to the stove, a pressure cooker/instant pot is the way to go. The potatoes dont need a lot of liquid and you can use what is left after cooking to thin the mash a little. So, throw the potatoes in the pot, add a cup of water, stock or similar in, pressure cook for 5 to 10 minutes, drain but save the liquid, add your choice of fat (cream, butter, cheese, dripping, etc), mash or pummel or veloute or strain as you like, use the saved liquid in small quantities to get the consistency you like, and you are ready to roll. If you are not using yukon, and only have the bigger potatoes on hand, quarter them, and, if you are a savage like me, dont bother peeling. The skins will come off as they cook and the bits that dont can either be let in for a more earthy flavor (great for winter dinners) or plucked out before your fussy in-laws give you the side eye.

Ashish1 year ago

Be sure to use mild cheddar as the recipe states. I mistakenly used sharp cheddar and it was overpowering. Consider mixing in the cheese in smaller batches and tasting in between to get the flavor to exactly your liking. I added an extra potato to fix mine, and in the end, it came out delicious.

Kate1 year ago

Wondering why I couldn’t make the cheese mixture then add the raw sliced potatoes, vacuum seal the whole thing in a bag then sous vide all of it together?

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