Unless you have a real potato lover, five pounds should be enough.

We will be 12, with one potato lover, so I am going to do about 8 pounds of the make ahead, and heat it in the crock pot also. And I am praying for leftovers for Friday.

The potatoes and a pumpkin bread pudding, plus some wine are my contribution to dinner with some framily ( friends that are better than family) at their home.

I don't know if it's b/c we're Irish Americans or not....but if I were you I'd buy another 5 lbs. Or maybe it's b/c my mom's mashed potatoes are great?? If there were any leftover, that wasn't a bad thing.

If you were going to the store again, I'd pick up more.....if not, don't bother.

Personally I would make another 5lb. My thinking is "everyone" is going to take some of the mashed potatoes but not everyone is going to eat the other sides. I always go back for 2nds of mashed potatoes.

Yikes! I was going to buy 10 lbs for 23! Now I have to reconsider...

pkramer - care to share the pumpkin bread pudding recipe? That sounds delicious! Will it be a side or a dessert?

Seagrass, I think you have enough, but just barely, there would not probably be enough for seconds if you think anyone will want them and there won't be leftovers. I'd make more only because I have a son in law that will take seconds (or thirds) of mashed potatoes in lieu of dessert and I like to be able to send some home with him for a late snack while Ashley and Madi are snacking on pie.

In general, a pound of potatoes will yield about 2 cups of mashed, so that's about a cup per diner. So, if you think there are people who will want more than a cup of mashed potatoes, you'll need more.

I think with the stuffing and the other sides portions might be less than if the potatoes were the only side dish available but I always make too many. I'm one of those people, I'd rather have leftovers than run out.

Annie

This is why my family does not do mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving! LOL! We simply ask Mom to make two pans of her wonderful dressing for our carb intake. We also don't do rice, same reason. This year we are having the turkey+dressing+gravy, cranberry sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, spinach salad, rolls, iced tea, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Teresa

I usually figure one pound per person. So i would do 10 lbs. So cheap anyway and nice to be generous while at it. Same effort. It is always too much but i have to have leftovers for breakfast potato cakes or mashed potato frittata. I always put together left-over containers so guests can take a bit of everything home. (those foil pans with the cardboard lids, 12 for a dollar). With dressing and mixed roasted roots it is a carb overload but i don't like to see anything run out. I rarely take more than a small spoonful as i go for the roasted veggies but someone will always pile up. In a crock pot it might look lost/empty if only 5 lbs.
So, 5lbs is enough, but i bet someone will be scraping out the bottom of the pot for dessert.

I would eat scalloped turnips, dressing, and cornbread before I would eat mashed potatoes, and so I think you have enough. I think half a pound per person is enough for any meal - at least that has been my own experience, but I do have to make extra stuffing. Since I make cornbread stuffing, I do not make stuffing AND cornbread, but I generally do make dinner rolls, in the tradition of my grandmother. Those are easy enough to make the day before and store in the fridge until time to bake.

I much prefer the flavor of turnips to potatoes, BTW. I have even mixed turnips with potatoes to make the potatoes taste better.

Lars

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I went back to the store this morning for another 5 lb. bag. I decided to err on the side of abundance.

Leftovers are a good thing.

Happy Thanksgiving,

seagrass

Ingredients for mashed potatoes combined by taste (never measured...you'll know when they taste right to you)

Boiled potatoes
Butter
Milk or cream
Salt
Italian bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
Garlic powder or fresh

Anyone else?

I've never heard of breadcrumbs in mashed potatoes. I have used olive oil and Parm cheese, though. I've never met a mashed potato I didn't like, except in Paris. They were whipped by the waiter tableside in a copper pot. The restaurant is apparently famous for them, but I found them unpalatable. They had the consistency of wallpaper paste. One of the few things the French do wrong.

What I do to season mashed potatoes most of the time is to warm milk or cream in a small pot and steep a sprig of rosemary, some smashed cloves of garlic, some whole black peppercorns and a bay leaf. A good hour in the hot dairy bath. Then I strain the herbs/ seasonings when I mash the spuds. Adding butter first, then the liquid.

Another wonderful easy mashed is made with a block of Boursin cheese. Fat city, lol. I made those when we lived in Holland and could buy Boursin for only 1â¬

I would rather eat mashed potatoes than pie.

This meal does not have two teenage basketball playing nephews, who need a mound of mashed...
I'm doing our personal favorite. Sauteed leek, shallot, and parsley/with minced stems. Add to smashed potatoes with a dollop of non-fat greek yogurt, and a bit of parmesan as the salt. Prepped tomorrow in a waiting small oven-proff casserole in the fridge, (do-aheads), re-heat and top with garlic chips and shallot crisps. Just a small 1.5 lbs for the two of us. We will have my needed left-overs. I stole a couple potatoes for last nights chicken pot pie testing DH's beer pie crust...again. So good.
(he made 4 crusts last week that i froze and keep using)
I have one left for his chocolate pecan pie request. A tiny one in my smallest tart pan.

Five pounds wouldn't last long at our family Thanksgiving at one time when 4 out of 13 were teenage boys who loved mashed potatoes.

sleevendog - those personal favorites sound great. Easier to reach consensus with 2.

Not looking forward to peeling 10 lbs. of potatoes. Ugh. I'd much rather cook the turkey.

I listened to Fresh Air this morning and the folks from America's Test Kitchen talked about mashed potatoes...lots of opinions and different likes, but they said the best way to cook them is boil them whole (russets) in the skins. That way they absorb less water and will then be able to absorb more milk or cream and butter (which they recommend warming first, to help keep the finished potatoes from cooling like they do when you add cold milk and butter).

I thought this was a valuable hint about the best way to cook the potatoes. The show is worth a listen; lots of other Thanksgiving meal info and ideas

Here is a link that might be useful: Fresh Air episode, Don't Stuff the Turkey!

Lars, I mix turnips with mashed potatoes, I also do a mix of mashed potatoes and celeriac, and occasionally make Colcannon, which is mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage and green onions. They are all good, IMO.

Seagrass, your mashed potatoes sound heavenly, and like you, I'd prefer mashed potatoes to pie. I do like mashed potatoes pretty much any way I can get them.

Amanda likes hers mashed with sour cream and cheddar and likes to use red skins, which she mashes with the skins on. Ashley adds cream cheese to Yukon Golds. Kevin likes his best with just cream and a LOT of butter, preferably russets.

Believe it or not, neither Makayla nor Bud like mashed potatoes at all. Madi, though, she'll eat her weight in them to the exclusion of pretty much anything else.

I remember growing up it was not unusual for us to have potatoes for three meals a day. They were cheap, easy to grow and stretched meals nicely. I remember a snack was often a cold boiled potato out of the refrigerator, sprinkled with salt and eaten out of hand.

Seagrass' mashed sounds so much better.

Annie

Duplicate post removed

This post was edited by annie1992 on Tue, Nov 26, 13 at 21:29