For this recipe I will be including quantities. You should never use these quantities. They are only included for effect, and using them means you are:
- Catering, in which case, are you sure I’m the right guy to be consulting on this?
- Really really really hungry, or…
- Cooking for a whole fraternity. Haha, good luck sucker.
Early December means the Delta Tau Fraternity Christmas Party. There’s a Secret Santa gift exchange (of booze) and stockings for all the active members and little sisters (filled with, to some extent, booze) but before it all comes a gigantic home-cooked feast. Multiple people take up the task of preparing a wide array of foodstuff for the crowd to drunkenly attack alongside their cocktails. If you’ve read my bio you would know this is what I’m used to tackling.
Now that I’m out in the “real world”, the execution of this massive meal is in somebody else’s hands, but I was asked to make mashed potatoes. In the past they were my Christmas Party specialty.*
Ok, ready? Here’s how to make mashed potatoes for 60 people.
What I Used
- Russet Potatoes, 30 lbs.
- Garlic, 3 heads
- Half & Half, 1 quart
- Whole Milk, 1 quart
- Baby Dill, 1 bunch
- Butter, 3 sticks
What I Did
- Rough peel the potatoes and cut into inch thick slices (keep them in a cold water bath)
- Boil potatoes until fork tender
- Peel garlic and puree with dill, whole milk, half & half, salt, and pepper
- In saucepan, melt butter and add garlic dill dairy mixture
- Strain potatoes and add to large mixing bowl, pour on hot butter and dairy mixture
- Mash it all together
- Salt and pepper to taste; as pictured, add some fresh baby dill
Other Numbers
- Approximate Time Taken: 3.5 hrs (prep+cooking)
- American Human Dollars Spent: 19
If you’re going to cook this much food, unless you have a massive food processor and unspeakably large pot in which to boil potatoes, I suggest doing this in batches. I did this – and the numbers made this easy – in three batches.
The processing of the high-fat milk products with the garlic and dill will create something of a temporary garlic dill froth. It’s neat.
Oh, and try not to peel 30 lbs. of potatoes alone. Find some generous, willing minions to conquer that task.
* This year I did not make the same mashed potatoes as past Christmas dinners. Those are a different post, and definitely not vegetarian.
2 Comments
Grady: I’m going to have to make you do a guest post about that pork. It was holy-crap delicious and that wasn’t just the Ouzo talking.
This was a hit. Thank you for making them.