Gratin dauphinois — Dauphiné, France
Dauphiné, France
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Gratin dauphinois is first mentioned in 1788, at a dinner given for the municipal officers of Gap by the Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre, lieutenant general of the Dauphiné. It's a dish of the whole province — Grenoble, Vienne, Gap — not of one town, which is why it's placed here under the Dauphiné.
The recipe has a simplicity that tolerates no cheating: firm-fleshed potatoes, thinly sliced, raw, cooked slowly in milk and cream with garlic and nutmeg. No cheese: with Gruyère, it becomes a Savoyard gratin, a different dish. The slowness of the cooking, in a low oven, lets the potatoes' starch bind the cream without anything else needing to be added.
Preparation
- 01
Peel the potatoes and slice them into 2 mm rounds, without rinsing them, to keep the starch.
- 02
Rub a baking dish with the cut garlic, then butter it. Layer the potato rounds, salting and peppering each layer.
- 03
Mix the milk, cream, nutmeg and chopped garlic, and pour over the potatoes to just cover.
- 04
Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes at 150°C (300°F), then 15 minutes at 200°C (400°F) to brown.
Where this version sits
A single, final coordinate: Dauphiné, France. Another version of the same dish, elsewhere, gets its own point.
Photo: Ludovic Péron — CC BY-SA 3.0
