Gratin Dauphinois

Potatoes baked in cream with no cheese and no egg, where the slices are not rinsed because the starch is what thickens it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (double cream), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg waxy potatoes
• 500 ml double cream
• 250 ml whole milk
• 2 cloves garlic
• 30 g butter
• a generous grating of nutmeg
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THE SLICES ARE NOT RINSED AND THE STARCH IS THE WHOLE POINT. Every instinct says to rinse sliced potato; here it ruins the dish. The starch that clouds the water is what thickens the cream into something that clings to each slice. Rinsed, the cream stays thin and runs out of the dish when it is cut.
2. THERE IS NO CHEESE IN THIS AND NO EGG. Potatoes, cream, milk, garlic, nutmeg. A cheese-topped potato bake is a different and excellent thing -- there is one on this site -- but it is not this one, and the two are worth keeping apart.
3. THE POTATOES ARE WARMED IN THE CREAM ON THE HOB FIRST. Ten minutes at a bare simmer starts the starch working and halves the oven time, which stops the top browning long before the middle is done.
4. Dish rubbed hard with a cut garlic clove and then buttered generously.
5. Potatoes peeled and sliced 3 mm thick, on a mandolin if you have one. NOT RINSED, NOT SOAKED, and not left standing in water.
6. Cream, milk, the remaining garlic crushed, nutmeg, salt and white pepper into a wide pan.
7. The potato slices added and brought to a bare simmer, stirred gently so they do not stick, 10 minutes. The liquid will thicken noticeably.
8. Tipped into the dish and the slices pressed down into an even layer with the back of a spoon, so the top ones are just under the cream.
9. The remaining butter dotted over.
10. Baked at 160C for 1 hour 15 minutes, until a knife goes through without resistance and the top is golden and bubbling at the edges.
11. IF THE TOP BROWNS EARLY, covered loosely with foil. The middle takes as long as it takes.
12. RESTED 20 MINUTES. Straight from the oven it floods the plate; rested, it holds a cut edge.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes