How Long does Mashed Potato Last in the Fridge?

Mashed potatoes are a popular side dish for Thanksgiving dinner and other family gatherings throughout the year. They are also quite adaptive!

They can be boiled on the stove, cooked in a slow cooker, or put under pressure in an Instant Pot. Additionally, ingredients like cheese, butter, bacon, chives, and garlic are endlessly customizable. However, there are frequent leftovers even though most people enjoy mashed potatoes! You’ll want to re-enjoy the holidays after spending countless hours in the kitchen. However, there is just a little window of opportunity to do so.

Foods have a limited shelf life. Additionally, mashed potatoes can make you sick if you don’t properly preserve them or wait too long to eat them.

Mashed Potatoes

How Long does Mashed Potatoes Last in the Fridge?

Mashable potatoes can be stored for up to 12 months in the freezer or 3–5 days in the refrigerator.

However, you must take care to handle and keep them carefully.

When starchy foods like mashed potatoes are left out at room temperature for too long, bacteria can grow and spread. Additionally, these may result in nausea, vomiting, and food poisoning.

You could develop botulism, a serious form of food poisoning if you consume bad potatoes.

Mashed potatoes shouldn’t be left out at room temperature for longer than two hours.

However, you should preserve the potatoes as quickly as you can if you’ve added dairy ingredients like butter, sour cream, or cream cheese.

The potatoes become less stable and more likely to swiftly develop bacteria as a result of these additions.

Use a shallow container when storing potatoes in the fridge to ensure equal cooling and the absence of heated areas. If not, your leftovers risk spoiling more quickly.

How to Reheat Mashed Potato?

When reheating leftover mashed potatoes, there are a few guidelines to remember.

Before reheating, make sure to let frozen mashed potatoes defrost in the fridge. It will take a while to finish this. Decide to put them in the fridge the night before you need them.

On the stove, reheat leftovers in a saucepan over medium heat. You can also add a little liquid if they seem a little dry. Milk, chicken broth, or cream are all suitable substitutes. Start with about 1/4 cup and keep adding until you get the consistency you want.

Additionally, you may reheat cold leftover mashed potatoes in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Or, until the body hits 165 degrees. Just make sure to combine them with a little liquid before reheating them in a baking or casserole dish that can go in the oven.

NOTE: Mashed potatoes shouldn’t be kept in storage after reheating.

Why do Restaurant Mashed Potatoes Taste So Much Better?

They most definitely don’t! Just the potato is boiled and mashed in advance for the preparation of potatoes in restaurants. Then, just before they are served, it is reheated and made nice and creamy by combining them with boiling cream (or milk, or even broth, or any combination thereof). The potatoes are boiled and mashed separately in preparation for restaurants.

What Makes a Recipe for Mashed Potatoes Successful?

Here are the Seven Tips for Making the Best Mashed Potatoes of Your Life

  1. Make use of Yukon Gold potatoes. The best-mashed potatoes are made by them.
  2. Boil potatoes cut into large pieces.
  3. Preserve the potatoes’ heat.
  4. Start by adding fat.
  5. Constantly taste.
  6. Don’t Add Your Liquid All at Once; Do It Slowly.
  7. Add aromatherapy to your fat.

A Perfect Mashed Potato Liquid

Instead of whole milk, choose cream or half-and-half.

Liquid dairy transforms potatoes into a creamy and delicious dish. Treat yourself a little on Thanksgiving by using half-and-half or a lot by using cream. The prepared cuisine will be appreciated.

How to Make Mashed Potato at Home?

Before we get to the whole recipe at the bottom of this page, here is a list of the ingredients you will need to make this homemade mashed potatoes recipe:

Ingredients Potatoes: As I’ve already mentioned, I like to use a mixture of half Yukon gold and half Russet potatoes. With potatoes that are both starchy and waxy and cook well together, you get the best of both worlds. However, you are free to utilize just one variety of potatoes if you’d prefer.

Garlic: I like to add just a few cloves of garlic to give the meal a slight garlic flavor when serving these to a big crowd. However, I might add up to a dozen cloves if I’m preparing them for just myself. I adore good, garlicky mashed potatoes.

When it comes to butter, I go all out and want my mashed potatoes to taste fantastic. We don’t use as much butter as many recipes call for because the other ingredients aid in making them smooth and creamy. However, if you’d like to, you can add more butter. If you consume no dairy and are vegan, use vegan butter.

Milk: When I make mashed potatoes, I always use whole cow’s milk. You may, however, use heavy cream or half and a half to boost the flavor if you’d like. You might also use lighter milk or raw plant-based milk as an alternative.

Cheese, cream: When I was a child, I usually used cream cheese to make my mashed potatoes because I enjoy the small extra tanginess and creaminess it provides. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature and cut it into 1-inch cubes for easy melting into the potatoes.

As the potatoes cook, we’ll season them with fine sea salt. (Keep in mind that you will need to use a little less iodized table salt because it has a different and stronger flavor.)

I like to add some chopped chives or green onions for some more color and flavor. Along with a huge amount of freshly ground black pepper. You are welcome to include anything else, though!

Directions:

Cut the potatoes as follows: Your choice to peel or leave the skins on your potatoes is appreciated. (I never remove them since I love the extra flavor and nutrients.) Then, cut your potatoes into uniformly sized chunks that are about an inch thick. Move all of the prepared and chopped potatoes to a large stockpot of ice-cold water.

If you plan and prepare the ingredients for a large supper, you may chill the potatoes in cold water for up to 4 hours before boiling them. Add a couple of ice cubes to the water to keep it chilled.

Once all the potatoes have been chopped, fill the pan with enough cold water to come approximately an inch above the potatoes before starting the boiler. The water is seasoned with one tablespoon each of salt and garlic. Then raise the temperature until the water starts to boil. In addition, boil the potatoes for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they barely resist being pierced with a knife in the middle. Carefully drain all of the water.

Make your melted butter mixture by heating the butter, milk, and two more tablespoons of sea salt in a microwave or small skillet until the butter is just beginning to melt. This should be done while the potatoes are boiling. (You do not desire to boil the milk.) Save for later use by setting aside.

Dry the potatoes in a pan by adding more potatoes to the boiling stockpot and placing it back on the burner while lowering the heat. Grab the handles of the stockpot with two oven mitts and gently shake it on the burner for about a minute to help cook off some of the extra steam in the potatoes. Then totally turn off the heat and take out the stockpot.

Mash the potatoes: Use your preferred masher to mash the potatoes to the desired smoothness.

Pour the remaining half of the melted butter mixture over the potatoes and toss everything together with a wooden spoon or spatula once the potatoes have absorbed the liquid. Use the remaining butter to continue. again, this time with cream cheese. Blend each ingredient only long enough for it to be combined to prevent making gummy potatoes.

Taste and Season: Add more salt (and black pepper, if you’d like) and season to taste once more.

Serve hot: Serve hot, garnish with any additional toppings of your choice, and savor!

Reference: The nutritional value of potatoes and potato products in the UK diet

A 1-2% annual decline in total potato consumption has been observed in the UK, which has coincided with an increase in the consumption of other starchy foods like pasta and rice. Consumers, as well as even health experts, frequently hold a poor opinion of potatoes in general and chips in particular. By conducting a secondary analysis of four-day dietary records from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008–2011, we assessed the nutritional value of potatoes and potato products in the British diet and made a distinction between intake of fried chips and oven chips. The serving sizes of six distinct potato dishes—oven chips, fried chips, boiling potatoes, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, and jacket (baked) potatoes—were also estimated.

Can Mashed Potatoes be Frozen?

Yes. Leftover mashed potatoes can be frozen for later use. To prevent freezer burn, separate the mashed potatoes into freezer-safe bags before storing them. and take out as much air as you can.

Before putting the potatoes in the freezer, make sure to cool them to room temperature. However, you shouldn’t leave them at room temperature for more than two hours. Additionally, make sure the refrigerator’s temperature is adjusted to zero degrees.

How to Identify Stale Mashed Potatoes?

Before reheating potatoes, always check them first!

Your potatoes may become rotten even if the entire 3-5 days have not passed. Therefore, stop eating the potatoes and throw them away if they smell bad or have a sour taste.

Additionally, keep an eye out for additional spoilage indicators including moldy patches, dry patches, or glossy-appearing regions.

Conclusion

In the refrigerator, mashed potatoes kept in an airtight container last for three to five days. However, keep in mind that recipes with additional dairy, such as butter, milk, or sour cream, may expire sooner than those with just potatoes. And for best results, store them in the back of the refrigerator.