Apples & oranges, to be fair. You can't compare a cream process with a simple fat process, especially when the latter is a minimalist approach and the former is recognized almost solely by its presentation. All due respect, but the critique sounds more like a preference, underneath. I hope you try this recipe again and pull from the constructive advice elsewhere in this thread. Good luck! Have fun!
Not quite Hasselbeck is about maximizing butter and surface area. It's why it pairs so well with butter baste and reverse sear. It's a baked potato that maximizes surface area and then gets butter basted. People are acting like slicing a potato is work, it's 5 mins max for a perfectionist. Most times I'm doing the slices on the first side's sear.
I tried this too and was similarly unimpressed! Good, but not amazing.
IMO the best flavour to work ratio for potatoes is to cube them and toss them into an Actifry with either beef fat or coconut oil and salt. Get a ton of crispy surface with about 5 minutes of active work, including cleanup.
Mashed is also super easy despite the above comment and is probably my go-to way to eat potatoes. Cube, pressure cook 7 min, mash with milk and butter. And I grow a ton of potatoes so I eat them almost every day 😁
How is doing...that...to a potato less work than cutting a few into large chunks, boiling in salt water, then mashing with some butter, milk, salt, pepper, garlic, and sour cream?
I feel like in terms of strict effort, doing the slicing on one potato, not even counting the cooking, is more of a bother than the entire process of making a big batch of mashed potatoes.
Because you are already doing half the work to make them as a part of cooking the meat in either of those scenarios. You may not even need to dirty another pan if you are using cast iron.