Still Using Butter For Mashed Potatoes? This Ingredient Adds More Flavor

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Mashed potatoes make for a great side dish that can be paired with everything from juicy steaks and fresh salmon to Thanksgiving turkeys and weeknight chicken. It even works as a creamy, fluffy blanket on top of those meaty shepherd's pies. Plus, you only need a handful of ingredients to make 'em: a few spuds, some milk, salt, and a generous knob of butter. But what if you wanted to give your mashed potatoes more flavor — something that might transform them from a simple side dish to a flavor-packed dish that could give the mains on your table a run for their money? Well, all you need to do is swap that butter with bacon grease.

While there is nothing wrong with adding butter to your mashed potatoes, bacon grease can do just so much more. Not only will it bring the same rich velvetiness that butter as a fat does, but it has the additional benefit of giving your spuds a boost of umami. Bacon grease can infuse mashed potatoes with a deeper, bacon-y flavor, giving it a meatier, smokier, saltier, and more savory edge. It's a simple tweak that can take your basic mashed potatoes to a whole other, tastier level.

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Making mashed potatoes with bacon grease is fairly straightforward, and you can add it in much the same way as you would butter. However, consider adding it before the milk (and any other ingredients) while the spuds are still hot. This allows fats to coat the potatoes properly and infuse them with flavor. And aim for about four tablespoons of bacon grease for every two pounds of potatoes.

That said, if you're not yet convinced about skipping the butter entirely, you can start small. Begin by swapping just half the butter in your recipe — so instead of four tablespoons of bacon grease, use two tablespoons each of butter and bacon grease. Keep playing with the proportions until you find the balance of butteriness and smoky savoriness that works for you.

From there, the possibilities of elevating your bacon-y mashed potatoes even further with clever mix-ins are endless. Since you're likely going to be frying up some bacon to get that grease, why not crumble up those strips and add them as well? Those bacon bits will also bring a nice crispy textural contrast to cut through the creaminess of the dish. You can also add chopped fresh herbs like chives, parsley, and dill to add a bright flavor to cut through the richness of the grease and potatoes. When it comes to making mashed potatoes with bacon grease, there are no wrong answers, only fun ways to get creative with a classic side dish.