Pommes Purée (Robuchon-Style French Mashed Potatoes)
Waxy yellow potatoes boiled in their skins, milled, dried over the heat, then beaten with cold butter, a quarter of the potatoes' weight, and loosened with hot milk until glossy and almost pourable.
Mashed potatoes are old in print: Wikipedia points to an early recipe in Hannah Glasse's "The Art of Cookery" (1747), with potatoes mashed in a saucepan with milk, salt and butter. The French restaurant version became famous through Joël Robuchon. Fine Dining Lovers calls the purée his signature dish at Jamin in Paris, where he won three Michelin stars in three years, and says he served it at all his restaurants (August 7, 2018:). The Local France, writing the day after he died in 2018, says he brought the humble milk, potato and butter mash back in the 1980s, when most chefs looked down on it and many French homes used instant packets, and that its fame spread after the New York Times published the recipe. How much butter Robuchon really used is DISPUTED (see Rules).
Why it works the kitchen science
Dry before the butter
Cooking off the steam leaves room in the potato for fat, so the purée takes in a huge amount of butter without turning greasy or loose.
Cold butter, beaten in slowly
A little at a time, cold butter melts gradually into the hot starch and forms a creamy emulsion; America's Test Kitchen notes that the potatoes' starch is what keeps that much butter blended in.
Step by step
- Step 1
Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover them with cold water by 1 inch. Add the salt and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to medium-low and simmer about 25 minutes, until a paring knife slides in and the potato drops off the tip.
- Step 2
Drain. While the potatoes are still very hot, hold each one in a clean towel and peel it with a paring knife.
- Step 3
Set a food mill fitted with its finest disk (or a ricer) over the empty saucepan and pass all the potatoes through it.
- Step 4
Set the pan over medium heat and stir the purée with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes, until it looks drier and leaves a film on the pan. Meanwhile, bring the milk just to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Step 5
Turn the heat under the potatoes to low. Beat in the cold butter a few cubes at a time, stirring hard, waiting until each addition disappears before adding more, about 5 to 7 minutes in all.
- Step 6
Pour in the hot milk in a thin stream, beating with a whisk once the purée loosens, until it is glossy, smooth and just holds soft peaks, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper.
- Step 7
For the restaurant finish, push the purée through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible scraper. Serve right away, or keep it warm for up to 30 minutes in a covered bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water.
Pommes Purée (Robuchon-Style French Mashed Potatoes)
Serves 6 (it is very rich; a small spoonful each) · about 4 1/2 cups · 1 hr total
Potatoes
- 2 1/4 lb (1 kg) Yukon Gold, ratte or fingerling potatoes, unpeeled, all about the same size
- Table salt, about 1 3/4 tsp per quart of water
Finish
- 2 sticks plus 2 tbsp (9 oz, 250 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and kept in the refrigerator
- 1 cup whole milk
- Salt and white pepper to taste
Method
- Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover them with cold water by 1 inch. Add the salt and bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to medium-low and simmer about 25 minutes, until a paring knife slides in and the potato drops off the tip.
- Drain. While the potatoes are still very hot, hold each one in a clean towel and peel it with a paring knife.
- Set a food mill fitted with its finest disk (or a ricer) over the empty saucepan and pass all the potatoes through it.
- Set the pan over medium heat and stir the purée with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes, until it looks drier and leaves a film on the pan. Meanwhile, bring the milk just to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Turn the heat under the potatoes to low. Beat in the cold butter a few cubes at a time, stirring hard, waiting until each addition disappears before adding more, about 5 to 7 minutes in all.
- Pour in the hot milk in a thin stream, beating with a whisk once the purée loosens, until it is glossy, smooth and just holds soft peaks, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper.
- For the restaurant finish, push the purée through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible scraper. Serve right away, or keep it warm for up to 30 minutes in a covered bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water.
Adapted from Joël Robuchon's method as given on his television show "Cuisinez comme un Grand Chef" and reported by The Local France (August 7, 2018): checked against Fine Dining Lovers (Ryan King, August 7, 2018). Both give 1 kg potatoes, 250 g cold butter and 200 to 300 ml whole milk; we use 1 cup (240 ml). Robuchon used ratte potatoes; Yukon Gold is the usual US swap (Fine Dining Lovers). Neither source gives a serving count; 6 is ours. America's Test Kitchen's easier version (cook diced Yukons in the butter and milk, then mill) is linked for comparison. The Local France. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- No food processor or blender, ever: Robuchon's own method warns that a blender makes it sticky. A ricer or food mill keeps the potato cells whole.
- Peel the potatoes hot; cold boiled potatoes turn gluey when milled.
- If it starts to look greasy or split, beat in a tablespoon of hot milk.
- America's Test Kitchen's shortcut cooks peeled Yukon pieces directly in the milk and butter for 30 to 40 minutes, then mills them; it is easier and very close in texture.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- The butter ratio. Disputed: the method Robuchon gave on television (The Local, Fine Dining Lovers) uses 250 g butter per 1 kg potatoes, about 1 to 4 by weight; Wikipedia says some French recipes use up to one part butter to two parts potato (citing Chatelaine), and Chatelaine's version uses about 454 g butter per kg.
- Robuchon rescued mashed potatoes from instant packets. Documented as The Local France's account (2018); it is a newspaper's summary, not a study.
- The New York Times made it famous. Documented as reported: Fine Dining Lovers says the Times praised the potatoes in 1983 and The Local says the Times published the recipe. We did not read the 1983 article.
- It must be ratte potatoes. Folklore: Robuchon used ratte (The Local); Yukon Gold is the standard swap in Fine Dining Lovers and America's Test Kitchen.
- Pass it through a sieve twice. Folklore: America's Test Kitchen describes the classic as forced through a fine sieve several times; the televised method makes the final sieve optional.
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