Potato gratin

Does anyone have a foolproof recipe for making potato gratin ? Not one from a packet or jar though.

I have tried endless recipes to get it just right and it never works out. The potatoes are still hard/al dente despite par boiling them first, the sauce usually ends up looking like something that washes up at high tide after a particularly heavy sea !!

Please, any tips/tricks ?

make sure you're not using festkochend or even meist festkochende kartoffel (hard-cooking potatoes). I hate those, they never seem to soften up at all.

Kartoffel mal anders ready sauce. It actually tastes really good and is very close to from scratch.

What Delia says.
Are you getting your spuds cut thinly enough? Using a mandolin?

Gen, they're just about OK for boiled ptatoes but that's it. I hate Festkochend spuds too.

Last night I cut them as thin as I could by hand and then par boiled them. After 1,5 hours at 200 °C, they still came out undercooked.

What would you recommend using to make the sauce ? Single cream (Schlagsahne), milk, double cream, sour cream, a mixture of 1 or more ?!

Each recipe makes a different suggestion I wonder if any of them is more foolproof than the others ?

i usually use a 3:2 ration of milk to cream. I actually don't par-boil them at all - just slice them very thinly, layer them properly, cover with your milk/cream mix and sprinkle with cheese - they take about 40-50 minutes (make sure you pre-heat your oven) - adding a thinly sliced onion is also v. nice...

Tenglecrap always seems to have floury spuds when no-one else does (for obvious reasons I need a regular supply of floury potatoes).
I use Dr Oetker Crème Double plus full-fat milk.
Do you have a food processor? Could you use the slicing attachment on that (shoving the plunger hard and quickly enough to get them thin)?
If they are thin enough, you can use Festkochend potatoes, in fact aren't you supposed to? See here

I always have the potatoes as thin as possible and you hsould rub your dish with garlic as well as including it in the sauce. I use a mixture of milk and crème fraîche. Sometimes cheese is requested too depending on who is eating. My recipe is French and is at home but this looks similar to the one with cheese:

1 kg very thinly sliced potatoes. (unwashed)
200 g grated cheese. ( I go for mild cheeses like emmental)
Salt, pepper, ground nutmeg
3/4 litre milk
3 soup spoons of crème fraîche
40 g butter,
1 garlic clove

rub your dish with garlic(generally a lasgne type dish)
thinly cut the potatoes.
prepare your first layer and sprinkle with the dried ingreds.Add a little bit of cheese. repeat!
Mix together the milk and crème fraîche ( I do this on heat as it can be a good head start)
Sprinkle with the rest of cheese and the butter.
Medium heat for 50 to 60 mins.
The milk should be totally absorbed and the top golden although you could pop it under the grill at the end to give it a nice crispy golden look.

Oi, Spuds are for the Irish, Finger Weg !!!

Thanks Mellelisa for that. I shall have a go and report back !

No problem. I remember having a particularly traumatic dinner party due to me not noticing the heat was at half all the way through and serving them up. I sat down to eat last and my husband was watching me intently as i took a mouthful and realised they were still hard!! Not so pleasant although my friend's husband insisted they taste better like that as he likes something to get his teeth into ;-)

I made a potato-based quichey/gratin thingy and the difference does lie in the potatoes. Get the mehlig potatoes. Nothing else will do. I even cooked mine before putting them into the sauce and it doesn't really make a difference.

No, you're not supposed to. That (really great!) link is for mashed potatoes, not gratin, and includes a test of if your potatoes are waxy or floury (apparently the correct English for festkochend and mehlig, respectively!):


That's not a recommendation either way, just a test. I guess marka's already tested the festkochend, whyn't you try the mehlig, do it just the same as you've just done it, and tell us how it turns out!

Over and out to that fullonfood site to read more...

Gen it is a fab site. The mehlig ones work but festkochend will give you that lovely glassy texture but only if they are thin enough (it really depends on what you like).
As for

You scoff them too quickly for anyone else to get any.

Personally, I'm with Katrina, go for waxy spuds, and slice 'em thin as you can...but do NOT then parboil or blanch them. No no. That'll get rid of the starch, and your gratin will be shite. You need the starch.
Layer the slices in a dish, but really make sure you season each layer well. Honestly, this will actually help because of salt and osmosis and liquid transfer and cell membranes and stuff. Dump over your cream, mil, egg whatever mixture, and cook in a PRE-HEATED oven (don't use a shitty fan oven, and don't believe the urban myth that fan ovens don't need pre-heating) for about an hour on about 180. Then whack up the heat to 200 for another 20 minutes or so.