These Mashed Potatoes Stay Warm During Transport

When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, it's not the individual dishes that stress me out. It's the timing of it all. The turkey is easy enough—that giant bird holds on to heat quite well—but the sides are a different story.

While a room-temperature dish of roasted Brussels sprouts isn't the end of the world, tepid mashed potatoes are a real bummer. Once those spuds start to cool, the starches tighten up, the fats solidify, and the whole dish transforms into a dry, pasty mess.

The most straight-forward way to prevent this is to make the mashed potatoes last (or use a recipe that is designed to be made ahead, then reheated, like this one). But what if you are transporting the mash over the river and through to woods, to Grandma's house? Or on the train to Friendsgiving? In either case, you need to provide a little insulation.

When in doubt, blanket with cheese (or more potatoes)

We have two recipes that come with their own insulation: Turkish Mashed Potatoes with Garlic, Yogurt and Cheese (Patates Paçasi) and our Mashed Potato Gratin.

That first one is what I call "mashed potatoes for maximalists." They're rich with butter, half & half, yogurt and cheese. The yogurt is the real hero. It adds richness but it also adds acid, which cuts through the fat so your palate doesn’t get saturated (so you can eat more potatoes). A few eggs transform the normally scoopable mash into a sliceable casserole; four cloves of grated garlic up the savoriness.

It's all finished with a blanket of melted, browned cheese and a drizzle of fiery-red Aleppo pepper butter. Besides the obvious benefits of cheese—it tastes good—it keeps the potatoes warm while you transfer them! It’s like a built-in blanket for your casserole.

The second is our newest mashed potato dish, which you can see a cross section of above. It's a favorite among the indecisive. It combines two classics: mashed potatoes and cheese-topped potato gratin. Milk-simmered mashed potatoes are the base, sliced potatoes and shredded Gruyère are layered on top, then the casserole is baked until golden.

The blanket of shingled slices and bubbling cheese does its job so well, you can't serve this gratin fresh from the oven. Let it rest for about 20 minutes to allow the potatoes to firm up slightly. Even after 30 to 45 minutes, the gratin will be warm enough for serving.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.