My mom made a simple version with no cheese. Each layer would be one slice thick, dotted with butter, and sprinkled with salt, pepper and flour. (No flour on the top layer.) The flour thickens the sauce much as the cheese would.

This was one of my childhood favorites, but now my household is dairy and wheat sensitive. So the other night I experimented and came up with thin layers of potato sprinkled with rice flour and pecorino romano (sheep milk) cheese, plus plain soy milk, and in this case, leftover ham. I baked it uncovered at 350 for a good hour and a half, until it looked pretty on top. It was great!

I feel compelled to advise parboiling the potatoes in the milk/cream and then gently pouring it into the casserole--this way you don't have to dry the potatoes off, and the milk and cream gets a warm up before heading into the dish.

Hi Elise. For a faster cooking time I used to put potatoes in microwave for 2 minutes (After microwave the potato is almost ready and it is not necessary to dry). I like this wonderful recipe. It is easy and very tasty.

I could eat scalloped/gratin/tartiflette almost onece a week! Last night, in fact, I made a casserole of chopped lamb, onions, thyme for the filling and half spuds, half celeriac with lamb stock for the liquid. The celeriac was fantastic in this dish.

This looks heavenly! One small question, how do you get the potatoes sliced so thinly? Are they put through a food processor?

Tamar,

Mandolines work wonders for thinly slicing veggies. :-)

I made this for Christmas day dinner to bring to my family's gathering in Mill valley, CA.
Everyone loved it....all the women asked for the recipe....and one comment was "loved the bacon in it". Thanks for making a wonderful day, even more special.

I made this dish with baby red, white, and purple potatoes. It didn't look very pretty because of the purple potatoes, but it tasted good. I have a cuisinart stand mixer with a slicing attachment. I put the potatoes in there to slice them really thin, instead of a mandoline or a food processor. I found that the dish was pretty greasy, in general, and that a large pyrex baking dish worked well, fo even browning and faster cooking time.

This may be a ridiculous question (especially considering that we are talking about scalloped potatoes, after all!), but does anyone have suggestions for making a lower-fat version of this yumminess? (Low-fat, I suppose, is rather too tall an order!) I was thinking about using a skim ricotta instead of cream, for example. Any thoughts?

Katie wanted to know how to make it lower fat. First use a low fat cheese and second use 2% milk not cream. I lower the amount of milk since 2% is thinner. I've also been known to blend 2% milk, low-fat cottage cheese and just a hint of dry mustard to the consistency of cream and use that instead of milk/cream combo. Hubby loves that version and has no idea it's got cottage cheese in it or he wouldn't touch it.

We always have these for Easter dinner, too, and I'm planning to make them tomorrow. I like a good, sharp Cheddar instead of the gruyere, and like a couple of others I sprinkle flour between the first couple of layers. I'm tempted to quote Martha Stewart and say take smaller servings rather than trying to create a low-fat version, but if you must, skimmed evaporated milk might give you the texture and richness you're looking for. And yes, the brown, crusty bits are the best so definitely bake these in a shallow casserole dish.

I only use cream in my scallopped potatoes, never milk. It gives a smoother, denser dish. My way: grated gruyere, (part aged emmentaler if desired) cream, garlic. No butter needed because of the cream. I rub a shallow oval casserole, about 2 quarts, all over the inside with garlic, then I lightly spray it with Pam. Then I slice my potatoes on my trusty mandoline. I like them thin. Then I layer them with the grated cheese (salt and white pepper to taste) and cover the whole thing with cream. I then bake it in a hot oven til brown and bubbly, and almost all the cream is incorporated. I let it cool a bit before serving. Leftovers are very nice sliced and re-heated in some butter in a frying pan on top of the stove.

When we lived in the Vosges du Nord in France, this was as ubiquitous as fries or mashers here. They were always served in small shallow copper casseroles with the main course.

Another method I have seen french home cooks use is to boil the potato slices in milk until the milk is boiled away, then baked sort of like the above. It is supposed to hasten the dish, but I find it more trouble to keep stirring the potatoes in the milk, and the time saving is not worth it to me. Also, using milk pretty much guarantees a curdled dish, at least when I use it. I use the long method, I just plan on serving them 2 hours after they are put in the oven, easy enough on the weekends, anyway.

This discussion makes me wonder if the dish can be partially baked, refrigerated, then finished in the oven later. Any ideas?

Re: tartiflette. Although I love Reblochon, it is so overwhelming in tartiflette, that I can only eat a very tiny bit.This one is most like the ones I have eaten in France, very strong. Not subtle, but delicious if you love strong cheese and lots of it.

Is it possible to slice the potatoes thin enough with just a nice sharp knife? I don't have a big food processor or a mandoline, and these just look soooooo yummy!

Or does a hand grater with the side slot work? I have one, but I've never tried to slice aything with it, although I assume that's what the slot side is for?

My mother, one of the finest midwest-US cooks (I realize it now but it was not so eminently in my mind growing up), and she made an excellent homey version of this dish, usually without cream and sometimes with 2% milk. Always with onions.)

She sometimes made a white sauce roux, with onions and lots of ham but no cheese; unfortunately for me, I wasn't interested in cooking (who would with her nightly dinners) so I did not get her recipes (all in her head). Analyzing this method now, the white sauce broke down to some extent by the Idaho spuds that were not pre-cooked. The result: a rich dish but Anyone familiar with this technique?

(Common knowledge now among chefs, or so I've come to understand, is that baking potatoes are a much better choice because of their higher starch content. Is this a consensus opinion?)

Now about the ham I have left from yesterday's meal: I don't know the "official" or should I say "professional" take on Honey Baked Hams but my family and other Bay area foodie friends are solid HBH's fans. The problem is that this ham's high liquid pumping makes its product impractical for heating, resulting in a more liquid dish than I'd like. (It is in my estimation the best "chain store" product, and I have no affiliation with the company.)

Does anyone have recommendations, whether theoretical or tried and true recipes, to put me in a new direction for this fondly remembered dish? What do *you* think of HBHams and their other products BTW? What are your fav hams and why?

Yes the side slot on a upright box grater works excellent...my Scalloped Potatoes for Easter dinner last night turned out great!!!They guys all had second and third servings. Ommit the butter not nessessary I use pam to coat the shallow pan. I use cream, does not curdle...

One of the streamlined recipes of Easter this year was Scalloped Potatoes. I used the Joy technique of parboiling the thinly sliced potatoes and then baking them over time. I layered them per the usual technique but also added some spicy chives I found at the store----I thought the dish turned out great! In previous years I've used Gruyere cheese & oven roasted potatoes rather than this year's aged cheddar but I would say it's a toss up between the two. Who could go wrong with scalloped potatoes!?! :-)!! YUM!

I love scalloped potatoes. Once I was making them and ran out of milk. It wasn't possible to go to the store, so I substitued chicken broth. OH MaGawd, so delicious.

I've done it like this ever since. Enjoy.

If I am making a large amount of scalloped potatoes in an electric roaster, and I am running short of time, can I peel and slice potatoes at night and keep them in cold water in frige overnight? or will they turn brown?

I made this for dinner tonight, using shredded cheddar. Since my 'onion hater' was dining with us, I used about 1/4 of a large onion and a very small shallot. I also only used 1 cup cream + 1 cup milk, which was plenty...wouldn't have wanted anymore liquid. I also mixed some bread crumbs with parmesan for the topping when the foil came off for the last 40 minutes. It was absolutely wonderful!!! I'm definately glad I lined a jelly roll pan with foil and put the baking dish on that. I will certainly be making it again.

Elise,
Another home run! I just made this for T-day today and it was a total hit, but than again all your recipes are! :-) They always say never to try something new on a holiday, but they must not know about your site, because all your recipes are home runs!

Thanks again!

Elise, thanks for this recipe - I was not satisfied with the Joy and wanted to see more. Mom used to make this all the time and I loved it, but looking to upscale it a bit. This is just perfect. As for the kind of potatoes - the reason I like waxy ones is I want them to have that little bit of "bite", faintly al dente, when it's done. I am going to mix half chicken broth and cream due to reading the comments, and put in some little slices of smoked turkey because that's what I have instead of bacon. I have some homemade goat "manchego" which I think I will mix with some cheddar and fresh herbs, maybe even some sliced, toasted almonds I have on top. Oh, and I am putting in some slices of winter squash to drop the carbs down a little since I am diabetic and I have found this helps with mashed potatoes (half spud and half winter sq is delicious). Lots of pepper, and some garlic. Yes. What fun - this recipe has been here a year and we are still discovering it and having a great time. thanks again!!