The Go-To Guide to Baking the Best Homemade Scalloped Potatoes

Although we adore melting potatoes and buttery mashed potatoes, we have to admit that it is tough to discover a better crowd-pleaser than scalloped potatoes. They’re consolation meals in their purest form: skinny-sliced potatoes tucked among thousands of warm cream and sparkling herbs with an ooey-gooey internal and golden-browned crust. If you need to kick it up a notch, honestly, you can upload a wealthy, salty cheese, like Gruyere or cheddar, on pinnacle earlier than baking. Here are some key regulations to follow to make the satisfactory-ever scalloped potato recipe when you have dinner guests over.

Go for starchy potatoes

Varieties like Russets and Yukon Gold potatoes are exquisite on this dish because their excessive starch content enables thicken up the cream. This, in the long run, transforms it right into a wealthy, velvety sauce during the cooking process. Russet potatoes have a higher starch content and could make a thicker, creamier sauce, but Yukon Golds tend to hold their shape better.

Slice them as uniformly as feasible

If you personal a mandoline slicer, that is the time to enlist its assist. The maximum important tip for maintaining in mind when slicing is to make your potato pieces all of the identical sizes—a mandoline will not handiest can help you slice brilliant thin (1/8 inch) pieces. Still, it will make everyone flawlessly uniform, so they all cook inside the precise same amount of time. If you don’t personal a mandoline, don’t worry—ensure your knife is amazingly sharp and try to be as genuine as feasible.

Use clean—no longer dried—herbs

Fresh herbs marry all of the starchy, creamy, salty notes together in scalloped potato dishes. Their vibrant flavor cuts through the richness, plus they upload a pop of shade to an, in any other case, a mixture of plenty of beige. Go for sparkling over dried herbs—they’ll taste much less sour and more vibrant, particularly after being baked.

Get innovative with mix-ins and toppings

Technically, including cheese on top makes those Potatoes Au Gratin. We’ve made peace with that, and we’re doing it besides. You also can add bits of thick-cut bacon, broccoli or cauliflower florets, garlic, chili pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, or slices of avocado. Anything you might like in macaroni and cheese is a fair sport.

Please don’t be too terrified of over-baking it. The aim is to cook dinner your dish till poking a potato with a knife reasons it to disintegrate nearly. The cheese on pinnacle must be fiercely effervescent, too. If your potatoes are just cooked until they’re soft, you might not have baked them long enough.

Use the right serving gear

Keep in mind that in case you bake your scalloped potatoes in a pretty casserole dish that’s suitable for serving, you could take your potatoes right from oven to desk. Also, due to the fact, the sauce in scalloped potatoes may be melty (i.E. Liquidly), you’ll want to use a slotted spoon or maybe a fish spatula for serving. Once you have a rectangular piece on a plate, you may spoon greater cream sauce over the pinnacle. Finish with some other sprinkle of herbs, and your guests might by no means leave.

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1. Always take a well-timed look to test for the tenderness of the meals item you’re cooking inside the oven; professionals, it’s far better to be safe than sorry in lifting the lid to decide the amount of cooking scope required if any than come to be with a charred meal. Even even though the frequent lifting of the lid allows essential warmness to escape, use your discretion to judge if checking in is needed

2. Typically, if steam is escaping too speedy from the lid, it manner you want to lessen the warmth as that is a phenomenon that is an effect of high heat most effective; either circulate the dish from the warmth supply or adjust the temperature for correct Dutch cooking hints to be effective.

3. Another clever way to make sure even cooking and the right temperature are set for the cooking is to rotate the casserole every 15 minutes. There may be even browning, and mold spots are minimized except undercooking prevented too!