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Hashed Potatoes, Au Gratin
Finely hash six medium, peeled potatoes. Place them in a sautoire with one ounce butter, half teaspoon salt, one saltspoon white pepper, one saltspoon grated nutmeg, two gills cold milk and one gill cream. Mix well; let the whole slowly boil for ten minutes, stirring once in a while with the wooden spoon. Butter the bottom of a baking dish with a teaspoon butter. Transfer the potatoes into this dish, spread the surface with two tablespoons grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese, divide half ounce butter into little bits over the top of the cheese. Set the dish in a brisk oven to bake for ten minutes, or until of a golden colour. Remove and serve.
A gratin built from raw potato rather than leftovers, thickened by the starch the potatoes shed into the milk. The measurements are straightforward once the old units are translated.
- The hinge: dice small and check for tendernessTen minutes of simmering will only cook the potato through if it is cut genuinely fine, about a quarter inch. Test a piece before the dish goes into the oven; the bake is for colour, not for cooking the potato.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of milk is one cup and one gill of cream is half a cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, giving a quarter teaspoon each of white pepper and nutmeg.
- SautoireA straight-sided shallow pan, wider than a saucepan. Any wide skillet or sauté pan works; the broad surface matters because it lets the milk reduce as the potatoes cook.
- "Hash" here means rawThe potatoes are peeled and cut fine while still raw, not cooked first. This is not American hash browns but a French-style gratin where the potato starch does the thickening.
- Brisk ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; 'brisk' is usually taken as somewhere around 400 to 425F. At that heat ten minutes is enough to brown the cheese and butter; watch it rather than trusting the clock, and finish under the broiler if the top is pale.
- Stir gently, and keep the heat lowA hard boil will scorch the milk on the pan bottom and break the sauce. Keep it at a bare simmer and use the wooden spoon sparingly so the potato pieces stay intact.
- Cheese choiceParmesan gives sharpness, Gruyère or Emmental the browning and pull. Two tablespoons is a thin veil by modern standards; three or four will not hurt the dish.
- YieldSix medium potatoes serve four to six as a side. Use a shallow baking dish so the layer is no more than an inch and a half deep, or the top browns before the centre heats through.
This is the classic French treatment of potatoes in milk and cream, the same logic as a gratin dauphinois, reduced to a quick version that cooks the potatoes on the stovetop first and gives them only a short flash in a hot oven. The vocabulary points to a professional kitchen: a sautoire and a saltspoon were tools a line cook knew. Nutmeg with potatoes and cream is a long-standing pairing in French and Northern European cookery.