Scalloped Potatoes

Whether you call this gratin dauphinois, potatoes au gratin, or scalloped potatoes, it's yummy.  There are about a million different versions: some with half-and-half or cream instead of milk, different spicing, or various additions.  There are also subtractions: some people make this without the cheese, and add a little extra butter.  I'm not usually one of those people. 

What you need:

• 2 pounds of potatoes
  
  • Peel and slice these about 1/8 inch thick or thinner. 
    
    • I guess you could do this without peeling the potatoes, but I've never tried it that way.  If you do that, scrub the hell out of them and pare off anything nasty looking, and tell me how it comes out. 
    • If you slice them ahead of time, put them in a bowl and cover them with water.  When you get ready to cook them, drain and dry them.  If I do this, I use an absolutely clean towel, with no smell of bleach or soap to it.  Spread the clean towel out somewhere, dump the potatoes on it, and dry them. (This keeps the sliced potatoes from discoloring, which they can do if exposed to air for too long.)
      
    • I usually use Yukon Golds for this, but I wouldn't let having a different type of potato stop me. 
• 1/4 lb Swiss cheese 
  • Use other cheeses if you like. Grate the cheese on the big holes of a box grater, or buy that bagged stuff if you want to lower yourself to that.  :) 
  • I usually have a big chunk of Jarlsberg around to cook with; Gruyere, Emmenthaler, or other Swiss-type will work, of course.  I guess you could give cheddar a shot, but I might back off on the amount of cheese, particularly if it's very sharp.  Blue cheeses and rind cheeses like Brie seem right out, but small amounts might be ok.  If you use Velveeta or Cheez Whiz, I will laugh at you, but first I will taste it.  :)  One extra cheese I particularly recommend is
• parmesan cheese
  • Dust the top of the gratin with this before it goes in the oven.  Leave it off if you don't have it or don't like it. 
    
    • If you have to use that stuff that comes in a green can, knock yourself out, but I generally don't talk to people who use that stuff.  :)  Buy a chunk of real Parmigiano Reggiano, wrap it well, and keep it in the fridge with the rest of your cheese (I put all mine in a big plastic bag and seal it all up, so each piece of cheese is closed up at least twice).  Use it as often as you can afford, and soon your friends will start dancing like the folks on that commercial. 
• 1¼ cups milk
  • Enrich this if you like with cream or half-and-half.  Measure the milk into a microwaveable 2-cup measuring cup, and add
• 1 clove garlic
  • Minced or run through a press.  Some people just wipe the inside of their pan with a cut clove.  Do what you like. 
• salt
  • About a teaspoon.  Adjust to your tastes.  Some cheeses are saltier than others.  If you're using unsalted butter, you might want to use a little more. 
• pepper
  • Black, white -- it's all good, as they say.  Leave it out if you don't like pepper, but I suggest using it.  I grind directly into my gratin while I'm making it -- probably somewhere between an eighth and a quarter of a teaspoon, total.
    
    • 25 grinds of one of my pepper mills, with the grind set pretty fine, is ¼ teaspoon.  I know this because I once ground a tablespoon of black pepper with it, and it took about 300 grinds.  (I imagine your pepper mill is different, but this at least gives you a ballpark estimate.)
• nutmeg
  • Leave it out if you like.  But if you want, scatter a tiny pinch over the layers of potatoes you'll be making.  If you have a whole nutmeg and a Microplane, 2 or 3 passes with the nut against the tool over the first and second layers of potatoes will do.
• butter
  • You're going to use this to butter your cooking vessel, and to strew over the layers of potatoes.  If you skip the cheese, add an extra tablespoon or two of butter. 
• cooking vessel
  • You need something about two inches deep and about 10-11 inches square or 11-12 inches round.  Whatever you use needs to be able to go from the rangetop to the oven. 
    
    • Handles will help, but make sure you cover them with something immediately after you pull this out of the oven, or you're going to burn the hell out of yourself.  If you're cooking and serving in the same vessel (which I generally recommend) make sure your diners aren't going to burn themselves either.  I'm not kidding:  The handle is so easy to leave uncovered, so convenient to grab, and SO EFFING HOT when you burn yourself.  It stays hot, too.  So be careful. 
  • I used to use my largest cast iron skillet, which is about a foot across.  But it was hard on the seasoning, so now I use a large All-Clad saute pan.  All-Clad doesn't stamp their stuff with identifying marks, but it's about a foot in diameter, 2 inches deep, and has straight sides. 
  • The reason the shape is so important is that you want the potatoes to cook in the right amount of time.  If you pile all this up in a pan that's the wrong size, the potatoes will not cook properly.  The whole mess should wind up layered to a thickness that's between ¾ and 1 inch deep. 

Ok, got all your stuff?  Good.  Let's cook. 

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Measure milk into nuke-able cup.  Add minced, pressed, or otherwise pureed garlic clove.  Nuke until milk is steaming hot.  Don't boil it over or you'll make a mess. 
3. Butter pan with about 1 tablespoon of the butter. 
4. Arrange about half the potato slices in a layer.
5. Strew about half the Swiss cheese on the first layer.
6. Add about half the salt, pepper, and optional nutmeg.
7. Dot with about another tablespoon of butter.
8. Layer in the rest of the potatoes. 
9. Add the rest of the salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
10. Add the last of the Swiss cheese.
11. Grate on the optional embellishment of parmesan (using your Microplane or the tiny, pain-in-the-rear-to-clean size holes on a box grater), or wait until after step 12.
12. Get your milk. 
    
    • If you've forgotten to add any of the spices or salt, add them to the milk, and stir.
    • If it's cooled off, re-nuke it.
    • Pour gently over the potatoes. 
      
      • Don't mess up your cheese layer a lot. 
      • I guess you can pour the milk in and then add the last of the cheese if it's easier. 
    • It shouldn't cover the potatoes totally, but they should be about 3/4 awash or so in milk, with the very top of the potatoes and cheese above the level of the milk. 
13. Put the cooking vessel on the range and turn the heat underneath to high.
14. While the dish is heating up, dot the top with a tablespoon or two more butter.
    • If you're more comfortable putting the butter on and then putting the pan on the rangetop, you have my permission to do so.  :)
15. When the milk starts to boil, I shake the pan a little to make sure the milk is heating evenly.  The process from turning the burner on to the mess being ready for the oven is only 2 to 3 minutes or so, depending on how warm everything is.
16. Put pan in oven.  No lid.  Farther toward the top is better than too low down.  Just don't burn yourself on the oven. 
17. The gratin should take about 30 minutes to brown nicely on top, with all the potatoes cooked and the fluid essentially evaporated. 
18. Take the BE CAREFUL, IT'S HOT pan out of the oven.  Leave an oven mitt or potholder or the like on any handle to remind you that IT'S HOT!
19. Serve it forth.  If you have guests, remind them that THE PAN IS HOT!  If you're by yourself, you'll probably have burned yourself by now, and remembered that the pan is hot.  Eat about half the potatoes and fall into a deep sleep. 

Variations:

• If you use meat stock instead of milk and leave off the cheese, you will instead have a gratin savoyard.  Add an extra tablespoon of butter somewhere in the process if you use this variation.
• You can layer in other things. 
  • Other root vegetables will work well; most will cook in about the same amount of time if you slice them similarly. 
  • I've also layered in cooked meat, like ham or smoked sausage.  Use a little wider pan or cut back on the potatoes a bit so that the layer of the food in the dish is about the same thickness, but don't obsess over it.
  • If you're floating in cash, I imagine slices of truffle would be really nice in here.  If you do that, invite me over, because I've never done it.  :)
  • If it's a little thicker, it'll take a little longer to cook, and may want to brown more on the top, or have needed more fluid to start with.   Adjust something else accordingly.

Comments

[Ann Prospero]

Your recipe for scalloped potatoes makes me hungry for some right now. Good food for cool days.
Ann

[Joe Eater]

Ann: Yes, it's good in winter. But it'a also good in summer. In fact, it's good whenever you want to make it. :) I actually make this a lot to take to potlucks.

I made a variation of this once for Thanksgiving with sweet potatoes and gjetost. I thought it would be cool. but it wasn't different enough from a regular dish of sweet potatoes that anyone noticed.

BTW, in the name of full disclosure, I should say that the original model for this recipe was Julia Child's, out of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1.

[Kira]

I've used Idaho potatoes for scalloped potatoes, and it works out fine...I just believe that I need to cook it longer than I do if I use Yukon. Also, I've tried scalloped potatoes with cheddar (sharp or very sharp, not Kraft crap but something tasty and not waxy), and it's really nice! Anything with potatoes = sheer orgasmic goodness in my book.

[Joe Eater]

K: I should make my potato recommendation less restrictive. I didn't mean for it to sound like one should only use Yukon golds for it. [click click click] There, done. :)