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Potato Gratin

A baked dish of thinly sliced potatoes in cream, topped with grated cheese and browned in the oven.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Potato Gratin

4–5
Oven400°F
Total1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

  2. Slice the potatoes very thinly (about ⅛" thick), if possible using a mandoline to achieve evenness, and place them in some fresh water.

  3. Swish around the potatoes in the water to get rid of the starch, then pour away the water.

  4. Place the potatoes on a wooden surface and pat them dry with a paper towel or kitchen towel.

Season and layer

  1. Return the sliced potatoes to a bowl and add the cream and chopped garlic.

  2. Add a generous pinch of salt and some pepper.

  3. You can also add a few fresh herbs (thyme is particularly good) but this is up to you.

  4. Peel the zest of the lemon and add it to the mixture.

  5. Mix well, so the cream gives a good coating to all the potatoes.

  6. Pile the potatoes into a buttered, oven-proof dish, layered no more than about 4 thick.

  7. Grate a generous amount of cheese, and spread over the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until the top layer of cheese and potatoes is brown and the cream is bubbling and running down the side of the dish, about 40 minutes.

  2. For a final flourish before serving, grate a goodly amount of fresh nutmeg over the cheese.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

788Calories
51 gProtein
41 gFat
58 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Potato + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Waxy potatoes
Hold their shape in thin slices, forming the bulk of the gratin's layers.
Reduced fat crème fraîche
Coats the potatoes and thickens into a rich sauce as it bakes and bubbles.
Gruyère cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Garlic
Adds aromatic pungency that mellows and sweetens during baking.

The step that matters

Rinsing and drying the sliced potatoes. Rinsing removes surface starch that would make the sauce gluey, and drying stops excess water from thinning the cream so it can coat the slices and thicken properly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, clove, garlic, cream, cheese, pepper, pork):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, clove, garlic, cream, cheese, pepper, pork. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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