Food - Drink
The Creamy Ingredients That Have No Place In Mashed Potato Casserole
By ERIN SHAW
Mashed potatoes degrade in texture when reheated, so for make-ahead mash, a casserole is your best bet. You can even load up your casserole with extra ingredients to add flavor.
Bacon, cheese, or even cream cheese all make great additions to a creamy mashed potato casserole. However, there are other ingredients that don't perform nearly as well.
Some people swear by adding a dollop of full-fat Greek yogurt to creamy potato dishes, but in a baked casserole, the yogurt will dry out and create a flavor that's like sour milk.
Béchamel sauce, made of flour and dairy, is another creamy ingredient often used in potatoes au gratin. However, in mashed potatoes, it adds a confusing and "off" floury flavor.
Lastly, mascarpone is a type of cheese that doesn't work as well as other cheeses in a casserole. It's often described as an Italian cream cheese, but it’s way richer.
While cream cheese contains 33% milk fat, mascarpone contains a whopping 60% to 75%. It makes mashed potatoes or a mashed potato casserole way too fatty, rich, and greasy.