Best Polish Potato Variety for Mashing

In Ireland we like our mash fluffy and 'dry'. Poles seem to prefer their mash more 'creamy'. Could anyone advise which variety of Polish potato is suitably 'floury' for giving a nice fluffy mash. Many thanks.

The ones I end up buying by mistake, usually :-)

I find Polish mash quite dry (I haven't had the pleasure of a meal in Ireland yet) compared to the Yorkshire type, made with waxy potatoes and a lot of butter as well as milk. I'm pretty sure they don't even always add milk in Poland.

Atch, there's a good recent thread here about potatoes. A poster (I think DominicB) mentions which commonly sold varieties are floury and which are waxy. I much prefer the waxy.

Thanks Jon. I knew one of the Brits would come to the rescue on this one! Polonius, Polonius, wherefore art thou Polonius?? I know what you mean about dry Polish mash, my husband is quite happy to eat potatoes simply mashed with a fork, nothing added but was converted to the joys of British Isles mash with added butter etc. However when we visit his grandmother who is a great cook she serves very creamy mash. Maybe it's the variety of potato she uses. I like both waxy and floury spuds myself but I prefer the floury type for roasting and mashing. I knew a lady who'd lived in America for years and she added an egg as well as the butter and milk and then whisked the spuds with an electric whisk to make them super creamy. A bit too much like the 'invalid' cookery of bygone days - you know suitable for a TB patient or one who suffers with digestive troubles - for my tastes!

We grow the Irga variety. Perfect. Onion gravy, anyone?

Now that name sounds familiar. I"m sure that when I lived in Warsaw years ago I used to get a floury variety because I remember that they roasted quite nicely. Perhaps that was the one.

Irga are quite low in starch, so according to the experts they shouldn't be good mashers, but I like them. If anyone can tell us the Polish equivalent of the Russet, we might be on to something good.

Yes, now that's it. We have those lovely red skinned potatoes in Ireland (amongst others of course).

My favorite are the red skinned yellow flush.
So thin skinned that you can wash the skin off with a scrubbing pad very easily.
Not only do they boil up the easiest, they definitely have much more flavor than any other potato I have ever had.

I don't know much re potatoes but I know that in Carrefour stores, they sell potatoes in bags as per their use: to be mashed, fried, cooked in oven, boiled, in salad... Otherwise stores in Poland never indicate what kind of potatoes they sell and therefore unless an expert and able to recognize potatoes by their look, it is a pure lottery. Once I bought some potatoes to mash and I had to through my purée away, it was waxy with a weird consistence. In Western countries, stores always indicate the name of each potatoe kind and its cooking use....

InPolska thank you very much.


You are a fussy little eater aren't you, so very French! I'd eat it anyway. When I was a child, my mother was a wonderful cook and made truly mouth-watering cakes. However she bought biccies in the shop like everyone else and had a weakness for trying the latest products. Of course it was hit and miss. Sometimes they were awful. The day after opening the packet and discovering they were not up to snuff, she'd get a very determined look on her face and utter the fatal words 'Come on, we'd better get rid of those biscuits' which meant making a pot of tea and munching manfully until the vile biccies were no more. No waste in our house!

@Atch: in all big Carrefour stores (not the "Express" type). This has been so for about 2 years and I was shocked first time because completely new in Poland. In France (and I suppose in most Western countries), stores indicate kinds of potatoes and what they are for and as a result, French shoppers don't go to buy potatoes but to buy "x" or "y" type depending upon what they mean to cook.

Although I don't and can't cook, I do enjoy good eating and I know ;) that if wrong kind of potatoes used, the recipe can be messed up. Normal ;).

...I think I've read it all on PF. A Frenchwoman that doesn't cook... zut alors!

In Poland the type of potato is not normally identified nor the preparation method specifed. An exception are red-skins known here as amerykany. We like plain-mashed potatoes with no butter or milk added. Since they are usually garnished wtih skwarki, gravy or pan drippings, that would make them too rich fior my taste and gastric system.

I've got an Aunt in the States who makes them the way you decribe -- butter, milk and whipped with an electric whisk. I find those mushy-sticky and thoroughly unpalatable, tasting like potato flake insatnt mashed potatoes. But her family likes them that way. As the French say to each his gout!

There are things that seem to be "amazing"... I'm sometimes even "proud of it" since everybody expect miracles. However, I enjoy eating fancy food and also watching cooking programs ;).

I wonder if they're anything like our Rooster potatoes in Ireland. They have a very red skin and yellow flesh, good for any kind of recipe, make delicious chips (that's fries to you sir!).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster_potato

Polly, you're a gentleman. Thank you.

I don't think red skinned potatoes can be mashed. I believe they are to be boiled or cooked in the oven.

I think you are right InPolska, red skinned potatoes are usually waxy, and it's the floury type which are better for mashing.

According to what I've found through Google, best are the starchy kinds, e.g. Russet and Katahdin (?). The problem is that in Polish stores (other than Carrefour hypermarkets) nothing is indicated so we don't know what we buy. We know that we buy potatoes and that's all ;).

At Carrefour, they don't give names but on bags they indicate "for salad", "for fries", "for oven"...etc ... and it helps

You are a delight, honestly. You have to boil them first, in order to mash them ma cherie! So if they're good for boiling they'll be good for mashing.

Red skinned potatoes are firmer though Atch, and of course you have to boil all varieties, but they are better for potato salads for example. As your title suggests, you want floury potatoes for fluffy mash.

Well you see the thing is Chemikiem that in Ireland our red skinned potatoes are floury, not waxy. 'Rooster is a red-skinned, yellow-fleshed cultivar of potato, duller in colour than the Désirée, with floury yellow flesh.' from the link I posted earlier. There are so many variations.

@Atch: "lol"! No, what I mean is that unless starchy, some potatoes cannot be mashed. They are to be eaten boiled with butter, cream but without being mashed ;). Once I mashed some potatoes that were not suitable and the thing was uneatable ;)

You learn something new everyday! I thought most red skinned spuds were waxy, but as you say, there are many different varieties.

@Chemi: yes, there must be several kinds of potatoes with red skin but like you, I believe (most of?) they are firm and more suitable to salads. Potatoes to be mashed are to be starchy and softer.

This is what I was thinking. You can mash any potatoes, just some are more suitable than others.

Yes again, Chemi! In practice we can mash any kind of potatoes once they are cooked but some kinds are more suitable than others. As said, once I had to throw my purée away because it was uneatable. Potatoes were gluey and dark yellow and could not absorb other ingredients that I put (butter, milk or cream, egg and Swiss or Parmesan cheese). It was so weird

Sounds gross InPolska!
@ Atch, here is the post that DominicB made on potatoes, which Jon mentioned earlier :-

https://polishforums.com/food/typical-ingredient-used-cuisine-49325/#msg1484528

Thank you Chemikiem. You're a pet.

Yes, Chemi, it was gross so straight to the garbage can and I had to eat something else ;). For sure, a home made purée with good butter, cream or milk, egg (there are people who even beat the white) and cheese but the potatoes ought to be of the right kind ;). Thinking about it, I may make one some time this week :)

Take a couple of damn potato's, scrub them up, peel them, grate them, throw them in a skillet with a sliced up onion and fry them in lots of butter.

Salt & pepper and sprinkle some cheese on and melt it just before you take them out of the pan.
Slap them on your plate and smear with sour cream.
Dunnit matter what kind of spuds ya use to do'er.
And as mama use to say, "thank the Lord that you have food, shut up and eat" or go to bed hungry".

(Of course back then we didn't have helicopter mom's making spoiled little puszies out of us.)