Specialized tools to mash potatoes
The mid-1700s weren't just a time for American independence, it was also an important time for mashed potatoes.
Mashed potato dishes certainly existed before their first appearance in a cookbook by Hannah Glasse in 1747. In 1771, a French army pharmacist, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, is thought to have popularized potato dishes in France. This influence spread to other parts of Europe and eventually the United States.
Over 100 years later, people finally had the chance to graduate from multi-purpose wooden mallets to a tool designed specifically to mash potatoes. Jacob Fitzgerald and William Silver invented the potato ricer in 1887. Resembling a garlic press, it was a two-handled lever attached to a perforated basket which holds a potato while a plunger presses it through the perforations. This allowed for greater consistency in mashed potatoes for the first time. It was also used to puree fruits consistently.
Other mashers with a perforated or wire-mesh bottom were developed later. Many of these methods, including ricers, are used today.
The potato ricer is a mark of an early trend towards creating kitchen tools designed for a single task, rather than multi-purpose utensils. Manufacturing techniques during the Industrial Revolution opened opportunities for new tools to be specialized to tasks. Even for simple ones, like mashing potatoes.
