Comments on: simple potato gratin

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:40:01 +0000

Would it be possible to use an aluminum pan to make this? I’m lacking in the pan area and would like to make this for Easter without shelling out right now.

By: Kelly Foyle

Kelly Foyle — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:33:02 +0000

Oh dear! I made this but it didn’t turn out. I don’t know what I did wrong. I cut the potatoes very thin on my mandoline…you could almost see through them. I used milk and gruyere cheese. They were in the oven for 1 hour and ten minutes and they came out raw crunchy. Meanwhile the brussel sprouts I had in the oven as well cooked up nicely in 20 minutes so I am pretty sure the oven was working. I tried pushing up the heat only to find the top ones burning and the bottom ones still raw.

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:56:26 +0000

made this tonight with caramelized onions and shallots. Did the mozzarella and cheddar, added some “Herbes de Provence”, Odobo seasoning and pepper. Kids loved it alongside the pork chop and spinach covered in cream of mushroom sauce.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:55:40 +0000

Just made this last night, with the mushrooms in the middle (with shallots and a smidge of thyme), and it was FANTASTIC!

In response to rupi d’s question, in my experience gratins unfortunately aren’t as good reheated (the milk or cream separates out and isn’t as creamy), so it doesn’t work to cook a day ahead. If you don’t care about supreme creaminess, it might be fine, though. It _might_ work to parboil the potato slices before you layer them, and then just keep the assembled-but-unbaked gratin in the fridge overnight, so that your cooking time would be reduced to half an hour or so. Alternatively, I wonder if it would work to assemble ahead of time and just bake on the day you want to eat it (the main problem is whether the milk would keep the potatoes from turning brown)?

By: rupi d

rupi d — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:49:54 +0000

Hello- Does anyone know the make-ahead policy on this gratin? How early can this be assembled? Can it be baked fully the day before and then re-heated before serving?

By: Pamela

Pamela — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:41:36 +0000

Gratins have such a lovely sounding name and thank God my Mother never used those boxed monstrosities but then that would have been like cooking or something which….no. Anyway, I’ve been making them for years and one of my favorites includes carmelized onions, minced garlic and BACON! Oh, and some paprika as well. Good Lord, it’s incredible. Like another commenter, I use chicken broth for my liquid with a little bit of cream. People go POTATOES over it. Many requests for recipe. I found it in some Junior League cookbook and now I can’t remember which one.

By: amy

amy — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:07:30 +0000

This should be called “Awesome and simple potato gratin”….I am so tired of recipes not turning out as delish as expected. This one did not disappoint! It was fantastic. I sauteed the shitakes and shallots and put them just in the first layer. I used 2% milk and a mixture of fresh grated parm and gruyere. Baked about 70 minutes. Wow, definitely my new favorite potatoes!!

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:03:29 +0000

I made this as a side dish for a six-person dinner party; sauteed some spinach for two of the layers and used cream because I needed to use it up. It. Was. Fabulous. Super easy, quick to come together, delicious, and pretty as a picture in my red stoneware baking dish. I have made a ton of your baking recipes, but this may have inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and try to cook more “real” food, too! Thanks so much.

By: Miss Fig

Miss Fig — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:19:42 +0000

It didn’t work. Was kind of runny & the milk separated into liquid & white curds.

I heated up the milk with a crushed garlic clove & salt & pepper – maybe that caused the problem? It was whole milk. Pretty tasty, but needed longer than 1 hour, maybe b/c I didn’t use a mandolin. Next time I’ll try to make a cheese sauce instead of the layers.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:01:18 +0000

Um…DELICIOUS! I made these with red and yellow potatoes and sauteed shallots and leaks and layered it in. I alternated the red and the yellow potatoes for a little extra prettiness and put it in two pie plates. At one point during Easter dinner, I said, “Hello? Can we give a shout out for these amazing potatoes?!?” Bad form, but, man those were good!! THANKS!