GIVE ME YOUR SCALLOPED POTATO SECRETS!

[thoreau]

I must have them. I told Dave I was making scalloped potatoes for dinner - and his reply was "well - here's where I stand scalloped potatoes. They are either award winning fabulous or they taste like velveeta vomit. Good luck!"

Velveeta vomit. (silent pause) well.

How do I make award-winning fabulous scalloped potatoes for the mathematician I adore so much?

HELP ME INTERWEBS!

Comments

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

My secret ingredient is Paprika and a little cayenne pepper.

(I don't use it in my scalloped potatoes, but I kinda like velveeta_.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

velveeta is the evil. it is "cheese food" - it is wrong-ness³...

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

The first thing I would consider is using a mixture of two or three high quality cheeses, taking his taste into consideration. Gruyere, in my opinion, makes lovely sauces, as does a nice Havarti. Crumbled bleu or feta on top would be lovely, but not to everyone's liking. A little mustard in the sauce does wonders.

Escalloped potatoes should be made in a low baking dish, rather than deep, to allow for as much crusty top as possible and to help the flavors merge throughout.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

all excellent ideas! thank you!

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

OH! One more thing I forgot: the kind of potato is wickedly important. Russets and other mealy potatoes are bad. Yukons are a good choice.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I have organic yukons from this week's fresh box. :) YAY!

[whiskerfish.livejournal.com]

Betty Crocker?

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

(giggle) I so do not do prepared boxed versions of anything. but thanks :) This sentence from Betty Crocker dot com:

"These premium potatoes have all the fixings to make a great potato dish, including a squeezable cheese pouch and a toasted bread crumb topping."

This sentence frightens me a great deal.

[whiskerfish.livejournal.com]

http://www.pauladeenmagazine.com/recipe_results.php?id=1033

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

that is a good variant - all the components seem to be yukon gold potatoes, cream and high quality cheese. :) Emeril suggests swiss cheese vs. italian blend. I'll see what cheeses suit my fancy when i hit the store on the way to Dave's tonight...

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll tell you my experience with them. I never liked them all my life but then I grew those french yellow-flesh kind and made scalloped potatoes with them and it was amazing. The pastiness of the flesh and the strong flavour just makes it perfect. I finally understood what it was all about then.

So, try to find some of those kind f potatoes. They have different names but they're usually long and skinny, have yellowish flesh.

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

My mother used to make delightful scalloped potatoes (sadly, she has not made the dish in years). When asked what the trick was, she said "oh, I just throw about half a pound of butter in it".

Then again, my mother loved Velveeta, at least until they changed the formula (or so she claims) sometime in the '70s. She never bought it again.

(valley girl accent) WHEY! no WHEY?! WHEY!

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

MILK, WATER, MILKFAT, WHEY, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, ALGINATE, SODIUM CITRATE, APOCAROTENAL (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE.

[eireangus.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY love them as well and appreciate these comments.

[hwynym.livejournal.com]

Well - I am admittedly, the last person to be asking for advice on cooking. However, in this situation, here's what I would do:

1) Prepare the scalloped potatoes to the best of my ability.

2) If the the words "velveeta vomit" are forthcoming from any partaker of said scalloped potatoes, they will be invited to smell them up close, adore or not...

But that's just how *I* deal with such situations...

It may also explain a lot about why I'm single...

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

LOL :) but you are so cute!

[excessor.livejournal.com]

You are so doing this wrong.

< pick up phone >
“Hello, Four Seasons? Two please for dinner at 7:30.”

Stay with me, Grasshopper. I don't normally give away this wisdom for free.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

Dear Customer Service: you are missing the point - I love being Martha Stewart for my husband. Is there a Four Seasons in Palo Alto? Have another cocktail sweety. - love, The Muffin

Hmmmmmm

[jearbear65oh.livejournal.com]

I ALWAYS follow my mom's favorite rule.
There are always two choices for dinner...
Take it or leave it.
If you do not like it, don't eat it.
(OR you may cook next if you wish)
:-)

Re: Hmmmmmm

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

(giggle) oh don't think Dave treats me badly - he just says things awfully black and white sometimes. (don't get him started on onions or coconut)

I love cooking for him - and particularly like it when I can make something he's unsure of and knock it out of the ballpark. :)

(btw - Mason Hobbie just talks you up as the nicest guy in the whole universe; nice to see you on my blog!)

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

Cheap, creamy melty goodness. Come to the dark side, young muffin...come....

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

no chance. Velveeta will never go in my cart. never!

Mmmm ... Cheese Scalloped Potatoes ...

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 50 min

Ingredients
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper
3 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, not rinsed

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook onion in butter until soft, add flour and cook for 2 minutes, whisking. Whisk in milk and cook until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and add 3/4 cup of cheese, stirring until melted; season with salt and pepper. Layer half of potatoes in a baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with half of sauce. Layer remaining potato slices on top of sauce and season. Top with remaining sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Re: Mmmm ... Cheese Scalloped Potatoes ...

[oscarlikesbugsy.livejournal.com]

This one will be nice and thick, if that is the taste/look you are going for!

[oscarlikesbugsy.livejournal.com]

oh, you poor muffin.

In a pinch, go with the boxed stuff, use their potatoes (the dried ones work nicely _and_ fast) and make your own cheese roux.

If you are not careful, there is a danger that excalloped potatoes will come out soupy. Be warned. Instead of velveeta vomit, you will have regurgitated Gerber Goop.

Super performance (extra points0, if you get nicely cut potatoes...

Otherwise, go with Jacuqes Pepin, but aged, sharp cheddar and bon chance:

JACQUES PEPIN SCALLOPED POTATOES
2 lbs boiling potatoes, peeled (about 5-6 cups)
2 cups milk
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 large garlic clove minced
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbs butter
1/3 c grated Swiss cheese (about 2 oz)
Wash potatoes well and dry them. Slice then 1/8 inch thick (or a thin as you can) into large saucepan. Add the milk, cream, garlic, salt and pepper, and bring liquid to a boil over moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spatula to prevent scorching. Remove pan from heat.
Pour the potato mixture into a well buttered gratin dish. (I use regular Pyrex 11 x 17. Sprinkle grated cheese over all (I sometimes use more cheese). Bake on baking sheet in preheated 400 degree oven for about 1 hour. They are done when browned and the tip of a knife pierces the potato easily. Let the dish stand for 15 minutes before serving.

[oscarlikesbugsy.livejournal.com]

oh, notice that you don't cover this one and it takes the full hour, plus the cooling time...

go with something else if you want faster cooking time or are using an oven where something might burn easily ...

!!!

[altf4ljdrama.livejournal.com]

Wha? You're from Idaho. I thought "funeral potatoes" were a specialty born into our genetics. ;-)

Seriously though, my mom never made scalloped potatoes. I wouldn't even really know where to start.

Re: !!!

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I'm not from Idaho originally - I was born in Spain - and moved to Whidbey Island north of Seattle in time for the first grade. Idaho was a prison stop between Seattle and San Francisco.

Scalloped potatoes

[(Anonymous)]

One recipe that I remember really liking (but can't find it) called for slightly browning the potatoes before anything else, to give them a little bit of caramelization and crispness before getting all creamed and cheesy. A bit more work, but I remember the final texture being fabulous.

--Matt P.

[tycho-anomaly.livejournal.com]

Okay, as usual home town boy Bill Smith's "Seasoned in the South" has a superb recipe, unfortunately not available online and I'm not at home to transcribe, so maybe try it another day. In the meantime, the book is well worth the $11.21 on Amazon.

[bigbeard61.livejournal.com]

Here's how I learned it when I was teaching myself French by following recipes in French. The methode classique involves no cheese at all.

Gratin Dauphinois

Peel 3 pounds of potatoes (floury is better than waxy) and slice into 1/4 inch rounds (do not rinse).

Combine a liter of milk, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 teaspoons of salt, some ground pepper, and a couple gratings of nutmeg in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.

Add the potatoes and cook at an active simmer for 10 minutes. The potatoes should still be firm. Drain thoroughly and discard the garlic.

Generously butter a gratin dish. Put a slightly overlapping layer of potatoes in the bottom of the dish and drizzle with creme freche (or heavy cream: the thicker the better). Add another layer of potatoes, and more creme freche. Repeat until you have used all the potatoes and about half a liter of creme freche. Dot the surface with bits of butter.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

thank you :) I've been sort overwhelmed by all the comments - but this recipe is pretty "ingear" with the others :)

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Why worry about it? Find a restaurant that makes them really well and take Dave there.

I'm not the only pro on your list, I'm sure... but here are some late comments...

[uppityfaggot.livejournal.com]

Scalloped potatoes are pretty easy, really. Most of the time involved is oven time. The suggestion to brown/caramelize the potatoes is brilliant and tasty but I found I had to make my bechemel a little thicker to compensate for the fact that heat has done things to the natural starch of the potatoes.

Surprisingly, from a cheese guy, I don't usually add cheese to mine, or, if I do, I add a salty, dry cheese (locatelli, maybe - my boss would add pecorino di tartufa) but you may not like the attendant slight grittiness that results. Me, I love it.

Also? I use smoked Spanish paprika. Picante. Or Alleppo pepper. Or a very little ground chipotle. Not enough to burn the back of anybody's throat but enough to give it some smoke and just a hint of fire. These instead of cayenne anyday.

In the south, they use a little dry mustard, too. But at some point you start getting away from the essential potato-ness of the dish and you don't want that. Or, rather, I don't want that.

Have fun! I'm still on my diet and am getting my cooking jollies any way I can.

[zbear20.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing you'd never make me a Wonder Bread, Velveeta, Ocar Mayer Bologna, extra heavy on the Miracle Whip, sandwich. That's my comfort food.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

um - I might make you one. but don't expect me to join in. :)

[kenwoodville.livejournal.com]

Looks like I'm a bit late to the party...but I'll share the basics of my recipe, Yukon Gold potatoes, Gruyere cheese, grated onion, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.