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Potatoes Baked in Cheese Sauce
2 tablespoons crumbled cheese 3 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco 1 green pepper 6 large potatoes 1 1/2 cups milk Melt cheese and butter, add flour and rub to paste. Add seasonings, then the milk slowly till blended. Cook till thickened and remove from fire. Pare potatoes, slice thin. Chop pepper. Put alternate layers potatoes and peppers in greased casserole until dish is filled. Pour the cheese sauce over all, sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake about an hour in moderate oven 375 degrees. Serves six. Nuts may be omitted if desired.
A straightforward scalloped potato worked with a cheese-thickened white sauce rather than plain milk. The one thing to get right is the potato: sliced genuinely thin, or an hour at 375F will not cook it through.
- Slice thickness"Slice thin" here means about 1/8 inch, which is where a mandoline or the slicing disc of a food processor earns its place. Thicker slices will still be firm when the top has browned, and the sauce will have broken.
- The sauce is a roux, not melted cheeseMelting cheese with the butter before adding flour is unusual but works; keep the heat low so the cheese does not seize into strings. Rub to a smooth paste before any milk goes in, then add the milk in stages, stirring, or the sauce will be lumpy.
- "Crumbled cheese"This means a dry, sharp cheese crumbled by hand rather than grated wet mozzarella-style cheese. Two tablespoons is a modest amount for six potatoes, roughly half an ounce; a sharp cheddar or an aged crumbly cheese carries it best, and doubling it does the dish no harm.
- Tabasco quantityA quarter teaspoon in a sauce this size is assertive by the standards of the period and mild by ours. Taste the finished sauce before it goes over the potatoes, since you cannot adjust it later.
- CasseroleIn a book of this date the word means the baking dish, not the French stovetop pot. Six large potatoes sliced thin, layered with pepper and sauced, need a generous greased dish -- three quarts or more.
- The nutsThe instructions call for nuts sprinkled on top and the recipe notes they may be omitted; no type or quantity is given, and nuts appear nowhere in the ingredient list. If used, add them in the last 20 minutes so they toast rather than scorch.
- Covering and browningAn hour uncovered at 375F will brown the top well before the middle softens. Cover for the first 40 minutes, then uncover to finish and take a knife to the center to confirm the potatoes give without resistance.
- YieldServes six as the original states, as a side dish. Let it stand ten minutes out of the oven so the sauce sets enough to cut.