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Scalloped Potatoes
Slice cold boiled potatoes thin; put in a pudding dish a layer of the sliced potatoes, then dredge a little flour over them and some small pieces of butter, pepper and salt, then another layer of potatoes and so on until the dish is filled; after this is done, pour over the whole about one pint of new milk and bake a light brown. It is not necessary to measure the milk, just fill the dish with milk, when all is ready.
A frugal supper dish built on leftovers, with no oven temperature, no timing and no quantity of potatoes given. A few decisions have to be made for it.
- OvenNo temperature is stated. A moderate oven, around 375F for 35-45 minutes, suits a dish of this kind: bake until the top is browned and the milk has thickened around the edges. A very hot oven risks the milk breaking before the surface takes colour.
- Quantity and dishA "pudding dish" is a deep baking dish, commonly earthenware, roughly the capacity of a modern 8x8 inch or 2-quart baker. No quantity of potatoes is given; something in the region of 2 lb of cold boiled potatoes would fill such a dish and serve about four.
- "New milk"Fresh unskimmed milk, not skimmed or soured. Whole milk is the right substitute. A pint is 2 cups, but as the recipe itself says, there is no need to measure: fill the dish with milk when everything else is in.
- The flour mattersThe dredging of flour over each layer is the whole thickening mechanism. Skip it and you get potatoes sitting in hot milk. Roughly a teaspoon per layer, scattered evenly, is enough.
- Cold potatoes, sliced thinSlice no thicker than 1/8 inch and pack the layers closely. Starchy varieties break down and help bind the milk; waxy ones stay in distinct slices.
- Butter and seasoningSeason each layer, not just the top. Cold boiled potatoes are usually unsalted and the milk dilutes further; about 1/2 teaspoon salt per pound of potatoes is a fair starting point.
- Browning"Bake a light brown" refers to the surface. If the milk is set but the top is pale, a few minutes under the broiler finishes it.
Scalloped dishes are usually said to take their name from the old "escallop" - food baked in a shell or shallow dish with crumbs, butter and cream - and by the nineteenth century the word in American cookbooks covered a wide range of layered baked dishes bound with milk. The starting point here is cold boiled potatoes, that is, leftovers, which suits supper as the lighter and more informal meal. The instruction not to bother measuring the milk is the kind of shorthand common in domestic writing of the period.