Mashed Potatoes Are Completely Necessary At Thanksgiving

Some dishes are negotiable (looking at you, pecan pie); this isn't one of them.
Image may contain Food and Butter
Photograph by Marcus Nilsson

I flat-out cannot imagine Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes. When my colleague Adina Steiman says she suspected that "a little part of me died" when she told me that she preferred one of the best food holidays without its best dish, she's selling my reaction short. There was yelling, arguing, and lots of eye-rolling. All of it was dignified, of course.

And, to me, it's obvious why I feel so strongly about this: mashed potatoes are completely awesome.

My girlfriend is flying to my hometown with me this year to join in on my family's Thanksgiving for the first time. She's an excellent cook and rightfully takes the lead on all matters menu-planning. I've told her that, in my family, there are only three non-negotiable items (besides turkey -- because, Thanksgiving): cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

I didn't even mention one of them: Thanksgiving is nothing without mashed potatoes.

First off, they take so little effort to prepare. Yes, peeling potatoes is mildly annoying. And sure, my favorite mashed potatoes recipe calls for peeled potatoes. But if that's a deal-breaker for you it's not unheard of to leave the skins on. After boiling, there's a quick trip through a potato ricer and a bath of cream and melted butter. And that's it.

Less than 45 minutes later (most of which is spent waiting for water to come to a boil), you've got a pile of buttery, smooth perfect potato product. Drown it in gravy or don't. Mix it in with fluffy, bready stuffing or create an immaculate island on your Thanksgiving plate. No matter how you eat it, it's exactly what you want.

And that texture! It's as if Memory Foam technology, butter, and a pile of hash browns had a little to much to drink on the Mayflower and produced a new type of carbohydrate.

Which brings us to one of Adina's main complaints: Yes, the Thanksgiving table is packed with carbs -- those glorious Parker House rolls, that fluffy stuffing -- but since when is anyone concerned about carbo-loading at Thanksgiving? If there's one day to throw that conern to the wind with reckless, gleeful abandon, it's Thanksgiving.

So, while Adina tries to convince everyone (and probably to some degree, herself) that Thanksgiving is just fine without them, I'll be where I am every year at Thanksgiving: Whichever seat is closest to the bowl of mashed potatoes.