Talk:Mashed potato

Canadian?

It is said that the invention of the Mashed Potato originated in Canada.

--Rachelle36 05:05, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I expect this would be hard to verify. Arguably, chuño is a form of mashed potato, and it was being made prior to the european 'discovery' of the spud. Markb 15:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Questionable content

Some of this article looks very POV or speculative, such as:

• "Some prefer them lumpy to add a little more substance to the dish, but others prefer smooth so they can focus entirely on the taste."
• "A white turnip cooked and mashed with the potatoes in a proportion of about 1:10, provides a slight "bite" that mashed potatoes proverbially lack."
• "Not all varieties of potato are suitable for mashing, the best being floury varieties rather than the waxy types used as salad potatoes."
• "In many American households, the top of each serving is hollowed with a spoon in order to form a gravy and/or butter volcano crater." This made me laugh but needs to be reworded.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by DraxusD (talk • contribs). — Preceding undated comment added 02:19, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

I already felt the same way about other aspects of the article (you'll notice they've been tagged). I'll add suitable tags to the sentences you questioned, as I kind of agree with you that they may be POV. Fourohfour 19:01, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I find the "adding substance" and "focusing entirely on the flavour" parts being very POV. I am just going to go ahead and completely remove that sentence. It's useless. Rediahs (talk) 16:27, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Smashed potatoes

Someone, properly, removed that as a synonym, but said it was regional. I remember my children, when they were little calling it that. I think it's about kids, not about regions. Does anyone really know? --Zeamays 14:15, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

The version I encountered now claimed it was American, which I removed. I agree with you, suggested it's juvenile, and slapped a citation template on for good measure. -- Deborahjay (talk) 18:05, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

It's a fairly common term among adults in upstate New York, especially near Albany, and in parts of New England. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.95.126.178 (talk) 15:43, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

I actually came to wiki to look up "smashed potatoes" which are a completely different thing to "mashed potato" (apart from both being made from potatoes) and was redircted here to "mashed potato". "Smashed potatoes" are a variation on baked potatoes. See http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/14/garlic-smashed-potatoes/ and http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/crispy-smashed-potatoes/79cd3633-9364-43e1-9e74-a2d17842537b 2001:8003:2081:B600:3494:7EF0:9016:7ED7 (talk) 08:38, 18 September 2017 (UTC) swampy.

Mashed potato: taste?

I noticed that potato, including mashed potato, is a rather bland food. This can be good news for the aspiring creative cook: mashed potato can be the base for sweet as well as salty and creamy dishes, dessert and breakfast as well as dinner. Is anyone on the record as having made mashed potato as part of a sweet dish? 198.151.130.69 (talk) 07:53, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

It's only as bland as you make it, you can add other things into your mash, like onions, some garlic, maybe some cheese of whatever type, it doesn't have to be bland. People that add salt before cooking potatoes should be shot, you add other ingredients when you mash the potatoes. Trumpy (talk) 03:24, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

bacon

βΆΓ οπ τάτ εό εΕ φε ηγ τΉίμ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.51.19.203 (talk) 21:33, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, wrong language here, we all like bacon here, apart from the vegans. ```` — Preceding unsigned comment added by Trumpy (talk • contribs) 03:27, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Mashed potatoes vs potato puree

When I look up in dictionary Polish "ziemniaki tłuczone" it tells "mashed potatoes".

But the ones on picture in this article are very heavily mashed, and are normally called potato puree.

How do you call potatoes that are only very lightly mashed? I mean something you could do using a fork on plate. See image: http://kuchennewzlotyiupadki.blox.pl/resource/schabowy.jpg Bcdfd (talk) 02:18, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Mashed potato/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

What does this have to do with NZ?

Last edited at 17:10, 28 July 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 23:24, 29 April 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.33.69.50 (talk) 17:10, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Australian name

An IP editor has added "Australian Name: hadie-Blubber" twice. This returns no Google hits, which leads me to believe that it's likely vandalism. Does anyone know if this is real? NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 19:42, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Singular or plural

The lead currently claims that "mashed potato" is the British-English form, and "mashed potatoes" American and Canadian. However, the plural form is just as common as the singular in the UK, if not more so. Hannah Glasse used "mafhed potatoes," and certainly a sample of historic newspapers shows that the plural was used consistently from the early 1800s onwards, with the singular only occasionally. These days it seems about 50/50. To be frank, the distinction looks bogus. Nick Cooper (talk) 10:12, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

According to Google ngrams, the singular form is used in both the UK and the US, but in both cases it is far less common (about 12-15%). From about 1890-1930, the singular form was almost equally common in the UK.[1] The singular form in the US was often attributive ("mashed potato flakes/powder") [2].

Given this data, I'd suggest that:

• The article should be at Mashed potatoes, as this is by far the most common term.
• Mashed potatoes should be mentioned before Mashed potato in the lead.
• The lead should not identify the singular form as the UK form, but should mention that the singular form is more common in the UK.

Thoughts? --Macrakis (talk) 16:07, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

PS Hannah Glasse used "maſhed potatoes", but Google Books normalizes the variant <ſ> to <s>. --Macrakis (talk) 16:09, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Short description

The current Short Description reads:

Dish prepared with mashed, boiled, and peeled potatoes

Several problems with this.

• It is not "prepared with" potatoes -- it is almost entirely potatoes.
• The order should be boiled, peeled, and mashed
• Too much detail -- a RS is not supposed to be a full definition

I proposed "Dish of puréed potatoes", which was reverted with the comment that sometimes they are lumpy and thus not really purées. Which is technically true, but I don't think that's all that important. Since the title already says that they are potatoes and that they are mashed, perhaps all we need as an SD is "Culinary dish", to distinguish them from the dance. --Macrakis (talk) 12:54, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Anything reasonably true that has the word "potato" in it and is fewer than 40 words would work. It could just be reduced to "potato-based side dish", and that would be fine. "Dish of puréed potatoes" is also fine. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 04:41, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

I trust you mean 40 characters :-) --Macrakis (talk) 13:58, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

UK place of origin

Kinda bold thing to put in the infobox 97.113.57.76 (talk) 02:46, 17 March 2023 (UTC)