A holiday meal without mashed potatoes is like Santa Clause without a beard. It’s obvious something’s missing.

“Potatoes, in general, are a beloved vegetable. When they’re on the holiday table, they play so well with all the other dishes there,” Dan Souza, the chief content officer for America’s Test Kitchen, told Morning Edition. “Let’s say you have a roast or turkey along with the mashed potatoes. It just brings it all together. Add some gravy to that and I mean, come on, you’re singing at that point!”

But mashed potatoes can be tricky to prepare. It’s easy to make them too dry or a little too runny. To offer a little holiday cooking assistance, Souza showed Morning Edition‘s A Martinez a fast and easy mashed potatoes recipe that breaks a few sacred cooking rules.

And the cooking tips Souza shared will have you more than ready to whip up the perfect mashed potatoes dish.

Know the best potatoes for mashing

“We love Yukon Golds or russet potatoes for this recipe. Yukon Golds are a little bit earthier and sweeter. Russets are the classic mashed potato. They have a drier texture. Both are great. I like Yukon Golds because they have a nice, butteriness to them.”

Don’t’ be afraid to mash up the rules

“With mashed potatoes, there is one cardinal rule, and that is that you take chunks of potato, put them in cold water, then you bring that up to a boil. That is taught in culinary schools, it’s taught to kids when they learn how to make mashed potatoes. We are going to break that rule. This recipe starts with boiling water and thinly sliced potatoes. It takes about 12 minutes [to cook the potatoes thoroughly.] Now, 12 minutes to cook potatoes for mashed potatoes is lightning fast. If you had chunks in cold water and you were heating it up, you’re looking at, you know, an average of 40 minutes probably to get there. So that’s the real beauty of this technique.”

Use the right tool for the job

“We use three different tools for making mashed potatoes. One is a traditional potato masher. So, this has a handle on it. At the base of it is a plate with perforations in it. Next up you have a potato ricer. A potato ricer and it looks a little bit like a lemon or a citrus squeezer. The holes in a ricer are smaller than the potato masher. So the mash that comes out is much finer. A ricer can create a really smooth texture. Lastly, you have a food mill. This is a way to make a really smooth puree. It’s going to make a really fine mash. So you can choose your own adventure. Do you want a coarser mash going with a potato masher, do you want something a little finer with a ricer or do you want something incredibly smooth with the food mill? It’s up to you.”

Souza said a traditional potato masher is the easiest to use. A food mill takes the most work but it’s still pretty simple. But no matter which tool you choose, the satisfaction of mashed potatoes mashed just the way you like them is the perfect holiday gift for yourself and your loved ones.