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Potatoes au Gratin
2 tablespoons shortening 3 tablespoons flour 2 cups milk 5 tablespoons grated cheese salt and cayenne to taste 6 cold boiled potatoes Bread crumbs Put the shortening in a frying pan to melt; when melted, add the flour, mix until smooth, then add the milk, and stir continually until it boils. Take from fire, add cheese, salt and cayenne. Put a layer of this sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, then a layer of the cold potatoes, sliced, and so on, having the last layer, sauce. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top, and brown in a quick oven for 10 minutes. Serve in the dish in which it was baked. Serves 6.
A plain white-sauce gratin from the era when "shortening" meant whatever fat was on hand. Nothing here needs rescuing, but a few of the terms and proportions repay attention.
- Quick ovenRoughly 400-450F in period terms. Ten minutes at that heat is enough to brown crumbs and heat sliced cooked potatoes through, no more.
- ShorteningIn a book of this vintage this is lard, vegetable shortening or drippings. Butter gives a better sauce and is the usual choice now; the quantity, 2 tablespoons to 3 of flour, is unchanged.
- The sauce is the hingeTwo tablespoons fat to three of flour is lean in fat for a roux, and three tablespoons of flour to 2 cups milk gives a fairly loose sauce, not a thick one. Stir constantly and let it actually come to a boil, or the flour taste stays in it.
- Cheese off the heatThe instruction to take the pan from the fire before adding cheese is deliberate. Cheese stirred into boiling sauce breaks and turns grainy.
- Which cheeseUnspecified, as usual for the period; a dry grating cheese was meant. Five tablespoons is roughly 1 to 1.5 oz grated, which is modest -- double it if you want the dish to read as cheesy.
- CayenneUsed here as seasoning rather than heat. A pinch, not a teaspoon.
- Cold boiled potatoesCold is not incidental. Chilled boiled potatoes slice cleanly into rounds; warm ones crumble. Six medium potatoes will roughly fill a 2-quart dish.
- CrumbsDry crumbs tend to colour patchily in a hot oven. Toss them with a little melted fat first.