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Scalloped Potatoes
Wash, pare and slice six medium-sized potatoes Butter a quart baking dish, lay in a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dot over with bits of butter, dredge with flour and sprinkle lightly with chives. Repeat until potatoes are used and two tablespoons each of butter, flour and chives, Pour over one and one-half cups milk. Cover and bake one hour in the oven. Remove cover and brown top. Serve in baking dish.
A plain layered potato gratin thickened by flour dredged between the slices rather than by a made sauce. The original assumes a coal or early gas range and gives no temperature, so a few numbers are needed.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is specified. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits the hour-long covered bake; then uncover and raise the heat, to about 400F, for the last 10 to 15 minutes to brown the top.
- Slice thicknessThe recipe does not say. Aim for about 1/8 inch, as even as you can manage; thicker slices will not be tender in an hour at 350F, and uneven ones give you both raw and collapsed potatoes in the same dish.
- The flour is the sauceThere is no roux and no white sauce here. The two tablespoons of flour distributed between the layers thicken the milk as it heats, so dredge lightly and evenly rather than dumping it in one place, or you will get pasty pockets.
- Quart baking dishThat is a 1-quart capacity dish, such as a small oval gratin. Six medium potatoes with a cup and a half of milk will fill it to the rim or beyond; set it on a sheet pan to catch boil-over.
- ChivesTwo tablespoons of chopped fresh chives total, divided among the layers. Dried chives contribute little; if you have none, thinly sliced scallion greens are the closest substitute, though they are sharper.
- Milk, not creamWhole milk is what is meant. Modern gratins often use cream or half-and-half, which is richer and less prone to curdling, and will thicken more.
- Potato varietyA starchy or all-purpose potato (russet, Yukon Gold) releases starch that helps bind the milk. Waxy new potatoes hold their shape but leave the liquid thin.
- YieldServes four to six as a side dish. It sets up considerably as it cools; let it stand 10 minutes before serving in the dish, as directed.
Scalloped potatoes are the plainest branch of the gratin family. The name has been linked to the older English cooking term collop, a thin slice of meat, though standard dictionary accounts instead trace the culinary sense to food baked and served in a scallop shell. By the late nineteenth century American cookbooks used the word for almost any layered, milk-baked casserole, from oysters to tomatoes to potatoes. It shows why the dish endured as winter cooking: potatoes, milk, butter and flour were all winter staples, the assembly is done before the meat goes in, and the covered hour of baking needs no attention from a cook who is managing a roast. The chives are the one small flourish.