Tips and Tricks

• Do you have to peel the potatoes? - The short answer is no; however, you can choose to peel or not to peel the potatoes. I like to use Yukon gold potatoes, so I do not peel them because the skins become tender while cooking. If I were going to use something along the lines of a Russet, then I would go for sure peel the potatoes. Always wash your potatoes.
• Thickening potato soup. - If you want a thicker potato soup without flour, you have a few options. Remove the potatoes from the stock before mashing them to your desired thickness. Once the potatoes are mashed, add the stock back to the potatoes after you add the milk and butter. If you want it thicker, add less stock back. If you want it thinner, add more stock. You can also mix about ¼ of a cup of cornstarch with the butter before mixing it into the potatoes and stock to help thicken the soup.
• Love bacon? - If you want more bacon flavor in your potato soup, chop and cook the bacon in the pot before you boil the potatoes. Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the pot. Remove excess grease from the pot but leave about 1-2 tablespoons to boil with the potatoes and stock to infuse more bacon flavor.
• Mixing potato soup. - You can mash the potatoes and mix this potato soup a few different ways. You can use a hand masher and mash the potatoes into the stock. Alternately, using an immersion blender in the pot makes it easier to blend the potatoes to get the right consistency. Or you can pull some of the potatoes and stock from the pot and blend them together and then add them back to the pot. You can mash and blend as much as you want to get a perfect consistency every time.