Waxy or Mealy?

Potatoes are native to South America and they were first cultivated on these scared northern lands in the late 1600’s and have now become America’s favorite vegetable by far. Americans currently eat about 110 pounds of potatoes per year, of which 55 pounds are frozen (French fries) and 17 pounds are chips. Over one million acres of America are devoted to potato growing, which yields an annual harvest of over 42 billion pounds. That’s a lot of spuds. (the term spud is derived from the tool used to harvest potatoes – spade) 

Obviously, there are many species and cultivars of potatoes, but generally speaking, in the kitchen, we are concerned with the starch content when considering potato cooking methods. Potatoes are classified as either waxy or mealy. For example, young, immature potatoes have a relatively high sugar content and a lower starch content and these are known as waxy potatoes.  Red potatoes are waxy potatoes. Mature Russet or Idaho potatoes have a high starch content and a low sugar content; this is an example of a mealy potato.

When starches are heated in the presence of moisture they gelatinize; that is, the moisture is trapped by the branches of the starch and its ability to flow is restricted. It’s kinda like covalent hydrogen atom bonding, if that helps. We would say that we have increased the viscosity of the liquid, or thickened the liquid. It’s a complex process, and this is a simple but, I think, effective explanation.

Adding flour (starch) to bacon grease, like your mama used to do, and then adding milk makes gravy. Very good gravy by the way! The finished product is much thicker than liquid milk, but all the milk is still in there, it just can’t flow as well.

We have to take this process of gelatinization into consideration when cooking potatoes. Just like all cooked foods, potatoes must have certain characteristics to be considered properly cooked and understanding starch gelatinization assists us in achieving the perfectly cooked potato. Let’s dive into mashed potatoes.

Everybody loves ‘em, they are a standard comfort food in the United States, but not everybody can execute them well. To begin with, we need to understand what constitutes top-level, comfort inducing, mashed potatoes. They should be light and fluffy, appearing, but not actually chunky, with a soft texture, tending to almost melt in the mouth. Adding dairy products in the form of milk and butter is universal and the added fats improve the mouth feel and flavor of the finished product. In no event should they be gummy or sticky. You should not be able to use them as wallpaper glue and they should not resemble cake frosting.

This is where gelatinization enters the picture. Waxy potatoes tend to hold together when boiled, whereas mealy potatoes tend to fall apart, making them the better choice for mashing. Russets are the go-to potato for mashing, though many varieties work as well. Once we have selected our potato, we now need to pay special attention to the addition of the dairy.

When mom made the gravy, she added cold milk to the hot flour and grease mixture. This wide temperature range maximizes gelatinization, meaning mom can use less flour to achieve the desired degree of viscosity. If she added hot milk, it would not thicken as well, maybe not at all. 

Overly aggressive gelatinization can cause our mashed potatoes to become a gluey or gummy mess. Three key considerations must be followed here. First, after draining the potatoes, allow them to dry. Second, make sure your dairy is hot before adding it to the hot potatoes and never, ever use a food processor, use a handheld potato masher. By adding hot dairy to hot potatoes, we reduce the effects of gelatinization and the result is a fluffier, less sticky potato.

Season, serve and savor your perfectly executed mashed potatoes.

The covid relief package just passed the House and Senate and not one Republican in either house voted for it; this, despite the fact that it has wide bipartisan support among the American public.  Curious. One can only conclude that this is just the latest example in a long list of continued political polarization. Doesn’t matter if it is good for the country, only matters that the other side wants it, so vote no. This is not governance, this is childish. And both sides are guilty as sin.

Senate rules seem to me to be cumbersome at best and arcane at worst. I don’t have a good grasp on them and I’m not sure I even want to understand them. Seems like the kind of thing that if you do understand, people will say you need to get a life and they would be right. 

I do know that nothing gets done with only 51 votes, it sounds like it takes something like 67, because I hear that number a lot. The only result I see from this is another four years of absolutely nothing getting done; this covid bill only passed because the Democrats used something called reconciliation which apparently is not often an available option.

If you’re willing to vote against a bill that is overwhelming supported by your constituents, you are not going to vote for anything sponsored or supported by the other side. The country cannot move forward with this mind-set, this is not the way America was built, but it may be a way to bring it down.

Political polarization reminds me of starch gelatinization. As temperatures rise on both sides, compromise viscosity increases and firm stances thicken and thicken until flow is totally halted and oppositional defiance is the only option left to the practitioners. Opposition for opposition’s sake. Easy, requires no thought, no effort and apparently no explanation. Government by laziness. Sad, but it seems we have achieved maximum gelatinization in the political arena. 

Extremism begets extremism. Referring to white supremacists as good people can encourage others to call for the defunding of the police (a particularly unhelpful slogan). Promoting universal healthcare can lead to shouts of socialism. Unabashed voter suppression can fortify minority rule and cause damaging and long-lasting social injustice. 

We hear stories. We tell stories, especially to ourselves. As we hear stories that include elements that push further and further away from our own world view, we can begin to feel threatened and the story we tell ourselves may start to reflect our own fear about the security of our future. A future that incorporates changes that make us decidedly uncomfortable. 

Human nature dictates that we begin to blame others for the uncertainty that intrudes on our world view, threatens our security and questions our place in the world. We begin to believe that our values, morals and principles are under attack by people that want to destroy our way of life and our vision of the future. This discomfort pushes us further away from those we disagree with and blame and finger pointing replaces dialogue.  

Retreat can cause desperation; the goal becomes victory through defeat. Culture is no longer a structure to built by us all, it becomes a battle to be won. We have already seen that the stories we tell ourselves, and the blame we assign to forces outside our own decisions, can and does lead to violence.

Like restricting starch gelatinization, we need to reduce the range of temperatures to lower the level of polarization. Through cooperation, collaboration, and coordination perhaps we can make a world that is fluffy, creamy and with a soft texture. But we must begin to alter the story we tell ourselves, for I fear right now all we are doing is making a sticky, gummy and gluey mess.