Scalloped Potatoes

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Not Really a Recipe...

...But here's how I do mine:

First, I make a cheese sauce using Monterey Jack.

Next, I peel, slice and parboil potatoes.

Then I spray a baking dish with Pam and start layering the following:

- The potatoes
- The cheese sauce
- Much much too much grated Cheddar cheese
- Shredded Parmesan
- Some fresh-ground pepper

When I'm done, Parmesan goes over the top, a bay leaf gets stuck in the middle, and I bake at 350F for about 30-40 minutes.

Do not get your triglycerides done the day after eating this.
 
I do them as follows

Thinly slice 1kg Potatoes with a 2mm blade
Add potatoes, 250g Bacon, Bunch of Shallots, 300g of your favorate Grated Cheese and 600Ml of Sour Cream to a large Caserole dish. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Cook in a moderate oven until evenly browned on top.

Very unhealthy, but gawd it tastes good.
 
My recipe is a little different than most.

You thinly slice potatoes and one med onion.
place half of potatoes in s greased 9"x13" pan. Then sprinkle with some salt and garlic powder, also add onions, top with remaining potatoes. Then pour 2 cans of undiluted cream of celery soup over potatoes and break up some without mixing soup into potatoes. Add enough milk to go half way up pan. Cover top of potatoes with lots of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Bake covered at 350 degrees for 1-11/2 hours
 
Cut to the chase

Using a food processor shred 1 pound sharp cheddar cheese and set aside. Do not wash the processor. Shred one large or two medium sweet onions and add to the cheese. Do not wash the processor. Shred 6 large potatoes still in their jacket. Empty potatoes in a large bowl of cool water and rinse twice. Do not wash the processor. Switch to the all purpose blade and chop 1 head parsley. Drain the potatoes thoroughly, dry the potato bowl and add the potatoes, onions and cheese. Add 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 cups sour cream, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and the fresh chopped fresh parsely. Mix well and pour into a large falt (9X13 style) casserole and bake 1 hour at 325.
 
Here's my recipe.

Cut a clove of garlic in half and rub the sides/bottom of a casserole dish, then spray with a non stick cooking spray. Press the garlic and add to casserole dish. Peel & slice 6 large potatoes. Use 1/2 of the potatoes and put a layer in the dish. Peel 1 cooking onion and cut in slices. Use 1/2 the onion, break the rings into pieces and cover the potato. Shred old cheddar cheese and sprinkle on the onion (use as much as you like). Sprinkle salt, pepper and a couple Tbsp. of melted butter over top. Then repeat with another layer of potato, onion, cheese, salt, pepper, butter. Add 1-2 cups milk. Bake uncovered for about 1 hour.

Gary
 
Homer moment

Scalloped potatoes! ORARRRGHHHHHHHHHMMMMNNNNNNg!(drooling).

Read a recipe recently that tells how to bake them so the cream doesn't curdle. Will post if found.

Have any of you seen or read "The Botany of Desire"? One of the best documentaries lately; examines four crops and how they've influenced human history: apples, tulips, potatoes, marijuana. Brilliant!
 
Wow!

Now over here in the UK we call all these dishes Potato Gratin or to some extent Potato Dapuhinoise although different regions would probably disagree.

Scalloped potatoes to me is peeled boiled maincrop potatoes - although largish New Potatoes can work - Dont waste Jersey Royals on this although I think JR's are somewhat overly rated. Id rather have some Cheshire New potatoes.

Take the boiled potatoes and let them go quite cold even refrigerated allowing them to form that dried skin on them. Waxy potatoes are best for this like Desiree.

Slice the cold potatoes into thickish slices and shallow fry in hot lard or oil. Bacon fat from frying bacon may also be used.

Would typically have these with bacon or gammon or even well trimmed pork loin steaks.

One thing is though that they must never be deep fried. They just dont come out as crisp or crumchy.
Also you cannot get the same effect from cooking them from raw.

I may well make some this evening to go with our Pork loin steaks now.

On the same topic I suppose,

If you have large enough potatoes to make good slices of potato the size of small saucers one would cook them as above and leave to go quite cold. Slice and then coat them in batter and deep fry in beef dripping.

The chip shops of the UK sell these as "Smacks". Highly indulgent and too much to eat IMO with a battered fish so when I want one I tend to just get one as a snack.
 
Yummmm...

Now I want to try all these!! So many different variations. I have always just sliced the potatoes (raw) in the baking dish and layered them with sliced onion rings, salt and lots of black pepper. Covered with whole milk, some butter pats and then covered the top with grated sharp cheddar and baked until browned and the potatoes were tender.

Thanks guys for all the great ideas....
 
Up North

Thats what my Grans & Mums recipe is for scallopps!!!

Potatoes sliced evenly , not too thin, layer in a butter greased bowl or oven roaster,
Alternate layers of potatoe & sliced onions, season to taste, when finished pour over full cream milk and bake in the oven, gas mark 4...180c
When nearly cooked add bacon and grill to brown & crisp

Alternative Wartime recipe which my Dad still does:
take large frying pan, layer potatoes & onions as above but use veg stock instead of milk, season & cover with lid
Add bacon when nearly cooked, then grill to crisp, this gives you more running liquor, tastes good but without the calories,!!!
 
Mike!

How UnNorthern of your clan. Such fancy French dishes there!

The veg stock one I like but such dishes like the creamy one were not heard of around my way until the mid 1990's when Homepride brought out all those jars for pasta and potatoes.
I pestered my Mum once to buy the Bacon and Cheese potatobake sauce thinking it would be most delicious but I was wrong. Tasted so processed and rank.
However back then it was the best thing since well chipped potatoes.

Only when I got into the Hotel and Catering industry did I see chefs make such dishes from scratch without it seeming so much effort. My Mum and Gran wouldnt have considered all that effort for a potato dish nor would they have spent all that money for something that came second to the meat.

The veg stock one is what I know as 'Boullangere Potatoes' - Ask anyone here for scalloped potatoes and you will be told to get peeling and heating that lard up!!!!! LOL
 
I see a lot of recipes for scalloped potatoes that call for cheese. Aren't those actually potatoes au gratin?
 
Fancy French...Lol

Hi Rob, as we have just spent the last hour discussing, nothing French about those recipes, it was a staple diet of most northern mining families, given the shortage of meat after the war as well!!! and these are perfect one pot / oven cooked meals!!!and it was a change from the "pan o boiled"

I`m sure Dapuhinoise are probably a traditional French, peasant/ village dish as is most of their food ,,,it just sounds better or posh to us because its in a different language!!!

Anyhow all that talk of food, and Dad fancys Fish & Chips from the local chippy thats been there since 1930`s,,,it still has the "Bench" in it that the coal miners (and us kids) sat on while waiting, the story is at Christmas one of the larger local families used to loan it for Christmas dinner so they could all sit down...LOl...but their Split (chips & mushy peas)& Fish is just magical
 
Split????

Chips and Peas otherwise known as an "Irishman" you mean LOL.

Although perhaps to have an Irishman you also need gravy. I ought to check this out with my Mum.

Amazing how the same thing is known as something different in the next county.
 
Another one...

Rub Pyrex dish with clove of garlic. Spray pan with nonstick spray. Layer raw peeled sliced potatoes and Swiss/Gruyere cheese in pan. Season with salt/pepper/bit of nutmeg. Add milk to about 2/3 depth of the potatoes. Dot with about 1 Tb. butter (maybe 2 T if using skim milk). Bake for about an hour at about 375.

This is Gratin Dauphinoise from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
 
Origins

Food terminology is at play with style of cooking. Gratin is a large, shallow baking dish providing plenty of surface area for browning. Items cooked au gratin are cooked in a shallow pan and augmented with cheese or bread crumbs to enhance a crunchy top. It has become permuted in the US to be Augratin Potatoes. Scalloped can sometimes refer to an item cooked in milk and escalope refers to a very thin slice of meat. Put the two together in the Western dish and you have scalloped potatoes, most often left to boil away in the oven until the milk reduces and the starch from the Potatoes thickens the dish. Cheese is optional. Its always a crap shoot to have the potato/liquid ratio correct along with the baking time and pray to the God of clean ovens the whole mess doesn't boil over and end up smoking out the house. The reliable and quick way around it all is to parboil the potatoes, make a thin white sauce and add lots of cheddar cheese. Later years have brought in an influx of expensive cheese, herbs and potato varieties in an effort to elevate the lowly dish on an expensive menu.
 
Botany of Desire

Yes, I caught the PBS series on that... even recorded it to DVD (which is around here somewhere). Like other such programs, excellent production values and content.

Another interesting program dealt with the issues surrounding our domesticated farm animals. We have domesticated a surprisingly few of them - what comes to mind is cow, chicken, lamb, goat, pig, duck, goose. It's debatable whether the camel and llama are fully domesticated. In any case, the show dealt with the health and cultural issues surround this limited repertoire of protein-providing domesticated fauna. Fascinating.

As far as scalloped potatoes go... have only had them at pot-lucks, etc. Sometimes good, sometimes rather forgettable. The calorific nature of them makes me hesitate to try making them at home. Too tempting.
 
I"m with Rich, the calories. Cooked potatoes just odn't freeze well is my experience, that's why I don't eat potatoes much. Because of the nutrients, I'd probably not peel the potatoes before slicing.
 
"and pray to the God of clean ovens the whole mess does

out the house.

Which I managed to do the last time I made Kartoffeln au Gratin.

But, heh, that's what easy-off is for.

Thanks for the tip, Kelly - I would have never thought of it. I'll give it a try.
 
When I do "scalloped" potatoes, it's usually as a main dish to use up ham from a previous dinner. Leave the ham out if you want it as a side dish.

Take whatever baking vessel you're using (I never use a shallow dish for these) and fill it with whole potatoes. Not past the top, however. That's about how many potatoes you'll need. For every 3-4 large taters, use one large onion.

Slice all but one of the potatoes (in case you don't need it) and the onion about 1/8" thick. Spray or butter your baking dish. Start by layering potatoes in the bottom. If you've used about 1/4 of the potatoes, layer about 1/3 of the onion on top of them. The idea is to start and end with potato. On top of the onion, sprinkle about 1 heaping tbsp AP flour, salt/pepper to taste, a tiny bit of freshly-ground nutmeg, some leftover ham that's been cubed, and dot with butter (maybe 1-2 tbsp). Repeat process until the dish is about 1/2" from the top, with potatoes as the top layer. Pour about 1/2c milk in for every tbsp of flour you used, pouring it all over the top of the potatoes to let it dribble in. Top w/ some breadcrumb or grated cheese if you like, cover, and bake at 350F for about 1 hour. Have a look about 1/2 hour in to be sure the liquid is bubbling a bit. If it's a little dry, pour a little room temp (not cold!) chicken stock down one side, maybe 1/2c or so.

After an hour, the whole thing should be gently bubbling and making its own sauce. The potatoes should be done (poke down the center with the tip of a paring knife). Uncover and bake until the top is browned and the sauce a little thicker.

When you take this out, it's best to let it sit for 5 minutes or so to allow the sauce to set a bit. To serve, plunge down through the layers with a serving spoon like you would a souffle, and plate the scoop of goodness.

Sometimes I use a little granulated garlic for seasoning, and/or throw some parsley in there. Use what you like! I don't use the salt myself, but included it as most people do.

OK, now I want some! Too bad I made a big pot of spare ribs and sauerkraut yesterday, and the leftovers will be even better tonight!

Chuck
 
My mother-in-law's recipe...

is very similar to Chuck's. Chopped parsley and onion to taste, 1 cup milk, 1 cup half&half, bring to a boil, add 1 can undiluted cream of chicken soup. Stir while heating, add 1/4 cup butter, and stir until melted. Pour over raw sliced potatoes, and ham which have been placed in a deep, well greased roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 2 hrs. @ 350 degrees, or until potatoes are tender, and everything is well heated through.

*ADD NO SALT!
 
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