William Sonoma Potato Ricer

I have an addiction to the Food Network (aka Poor Man's Culinary School). I've seen countless episodes this month of Thanksgiving feast by various chefs/cooks etc. and the one common thread was a Potato Ricer. This little gadget is supposed to produce the creamiest fluffiest mashed potatoes in the history of mashed potatoes. Ofcourse I HAD to have one.


Not just ANY ONE but the RSVP brand that Cook's Illustrated touted as the best one. A piddly $13.00 on Amazon...psshaw..No problem. Except that I figured I would save myself the shipping and just buy one here. No luck. Can't find one anywhere. Back up plan: Target carries one (not as good but reasonably priced). No luck. They don't have them in stock. So the Friday before Thanksgiving I go online to see if I can rush ship one. They went up to $20.00! WHAT?! I was very upset and proceeded to complain and whine about it on a message board when a dear girl I 'know' offered me hers. She said "it's in the attic because the apartment is small, you are welcome to it." Bless her heart. She shipped it to me and behold IT WAS BRAND NEW WILLIAMS SONOMA sent to me just in time for the price of shipping! Thank you, Deborah (Wee), from the bottom of my heart.

I was in TEARS cradling this thing to my chest with my darling husband staring at me as if I had lost my ever loving mind! And it is a dream with potatoes. You HAVE to have one of these things and if you only use it at Thanksgiving it is still worth EVERY penny.

Simple Mashed Potatoes:

Steam diced,peeled potatoes for ten minutes. Rinse in cold water and return to steamer for another 10-15 minutes until tender. (Steaming and rinsing supposedly keeps the starch from breaking down making potatoes "gluey" according to Cook's Illustrated Test Kitchens and I dare say it definately works!).

Process potatoes through Potato ricer and gently mix in butter, salt, pepper and whipping cream. Perfect! Quantities are subjective depending on the size of the crowd. I think this is definately a recipe you HAVE to play with and therefore I'm not giving you measurements.

I can not tell you if the RSVP model is truly better then the Williams Sonoma but the WS one definately gets TWO THUMBS up from me. It is an excellent product! Easy to use, only a little effort to squeeze handle, and comes apart for easy cleaning. Get yourself one before the next holiday dinner!