When my sister and I were growing up, we got to choose what the family ate for our birthday dinner. A tradition instilled from her own childhood, my mom would cook anything we wanted on our birthday, something that felt very grown up and special at the time. It still does.
I always opted for Carmen’s Capers casserole — a Company’s Coming standard with ground beef, noodles, canned mushroom soup and tomatoes, topped with grated cheese. My sister always requested honey garlic wings, caesar salad, and scalloped potatoes.
It turns out her go-to side dish has gained a renewed popularity in this province.
Scalloped potatoes are everything you want in a side dish: the rare mix of comfort food that also has an impressive presentation. Filling, creamy, and cheesy, you could scallop a napkin like my mom used to do scalloped potatoes, and I would probably have eaten it with a smile.
And, apparently, so would the rest of Canada. Scalloped potatoes were amongst the top 10 food-related searches across the country in 2020, coming in at number five. And here in Newfoundland and Labrador, we searched for it the most.
Why scalloped potatoes?
At first, this might seem shocking. What about all those sourdough loaves people were making during the lockdown? Nope, your neighbour wasn’t making air fryer fries, they were looking for scalloped potatoes recipes.
It’s even more surprising when you consider that a major component of the favourite Sunday meal, Jiggs Dinner, is boiled potatoes.
During these trying times (aren’t we all tired of living through ‘unprecedented times’?) it's the comfort foods from our childhoods, like my birthday casserole or my sister’s honey garlic wings, that we're turning to. They remind us of times with our loved ones, loud family tables, bustling kitchens filled with cousins, of holidays, of comfort. And let’s be honest, scalloped potatoes aren’t exactly a weeknight side; they take time (which, when you’re stuck inside, you have a lot more of).
And then I started thinking about ham. The smell of ham baking in the oven on a Sunday afternoon. The sound of the sizzling mustard sauce as the baked ham came out of the oven before a family dinner. And what’s always right next to it? Scalloped potatoes.
At least, that’s the way it is in Newfoundland and Labrador. For many Newfoundlanders, ham and scalloped potatoes are a must-have during the holiday season. Some enjoy it on Christmas Eve, others ring in the new year with this dynamic duo dinner. It’s also popular at Easter when a ham is a must-have.
Passion for potatoes
Thinking it wouldn’t raise too much chatter, I went to my social media channels for advice on scalloped potatoes. The floodgates opened into my inbox. Little did I know the vigour and passion with which my fellow online foodies would present their own versions of the classic side dish.
Like any homemade standard, there are tons of iterations. Some people emailed me full recipes, others talked me through what they remembered of their mom’s famous recipe.
They talked about scalloped potatoes with curry powder, with mushroom soup, with cream cheese, with sour cream, with onion (or adamantly with no onion).
Others put breadcrumbs on top — one person even told me they used potato chips on top for extra crunch. Some cooks made a roux, some used heavy cream or a mix of milk and chicken stock, while others sliced up half potatoes and half sweet potatoes for their treasured dish.
One person, who hasn’t lived here in Newfoundland for long, told me about his astonishment at how different potatoes au gratin and scalloped potatoes were, which incited my spiral into the neverending font of recipes on the internet.
I’m ashamed to admit, until researching for this article, I had always assumed scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin were the same thing. After all, my mother’s infamous birthday scalloped potatoes were most definitely smothered in cheese. But in the cheese lies the difference.
Traditionally, there is no cheese in scalloped potatoes at all, just layers of a bechamel-like cream sauce and potatoes, while potatoes au gratin (also known as potato dauphinoise) are first cooked in milk then layered and topped with tons of cheese, au gratin.
But classic definitions be damned, put the cheese on your scalloped potatoes. Everything you eat these days could be au gratin, couldn’t it?
Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin
This is a hybrid recipe — a mixed tape of traditional scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin — which results in a creamy potato dish blanketed in bubbling cheese.
Ingredients:
- 500 ml cream
- 500 ml milk
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 8 large potatoes, peeled*
- 1 cup grated parmesan
- 1 cup grated gruyere
- 1 cup grated sharp cheddar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Peel potatoes and slice thinly with a mandolin and rinse. Grate the cheeses and combine in a bowl, set aside.
- Combine milk, cream and whole garlic cloves into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Add potatoes to the simmering mixture and cook until they are just softened.
- Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon and place one layer in an ovenproof dish. Top the layer of potatoes with some of the grated cheese mixture. Repeat until you're out of potatoes, making sure to reserve enough cheese to cover the top of the dish, about one cup.
- Before putting the cheese on the last layer, pour in your milk mixture (with the garlic cloves removed) and cover the potatoes.
- Top with remaining cheese and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and the milk is absorbed. Let it rest for at least five minutes before serving.
*Note: Sometimes I used new potatoes or baby potatoes and don’t bother peeling them; you get a slightly more rustic but equally delicious dish.
Gabby Peyton is a freelance food writer based in St. John’s. You can reach her by email at [email protected] or via Twitter and Instagram @gabbypeytoneats.
