This is a recipe for good old fashioned creamy scalloped potatoes. Simple ingredients and big on flavor. A tried and true recipe where scalloped potatoes taste pure, creamy and very special. Irresistibly delicious.
Sometimes you just have to go on faith that, when it comes to a Creamy Scalloped Potatoes, less is better. I’m not sure when I fell in with a bad crowd, probably sometime in the 70’s. I was lured into making a glorified pan of potatoes that included cream of this and cream of that soup, more than a cup of greasy shredded cheese and voila, I was serving up a monstrosity of a potato casserole.
That’s certainly not how my mom made them. Hers were a much simpler offering. Thin sliced potatoes and onions simmered in a cream sauce with a little sprinkle of paprika for color…bingo. It’s perfect, a classic, its creamy, it’s decadent and a sure crowd pleaser.
Of course Mom didn’t use a recipe and I remember when I first started cooking, it was difficult to get the combination right for a perfect pan of scalloped potatoes. When I saw this recipe come over from Saveur, I had to give it a try. It’s spot on.
If you have a mandolin, get it out for this recipe. Evenly sliced thin potatoes make this melt in your mouth even creamier.
If you don’t have a mandolin and are thinking about a purchase, I’ve had my OXO Good Grips Mandolin Slicer for years and it’s been worth every penny of the $99 I paid. It works beautifully. Prices have come down a bit. It’s now available on Amazon for around $70. And thanks so some very clever designers owning a mandolin has become an even less inexpensive proposition. This past week at a Sur la Table cooking class, we used two smaller versions. I thought the Kyocera Advanced Ceramic Adjustable Mandolin Slicer worked just fine, and with its smaller size would be easier to store. $18.
I’ve never found the guiding tools that come with any mandolin easy to use. I wouldn’t use my mandolin without my Victorinox Cutlery UltraShield Cut Resistant Glove you see in the photo above. It protects your hands from cuts and guiding the food with your palm makes mandolin use much more manageable. I’m slicing fibrous jicama in the photo.
When pressing hard to get that jicama to slice well, that glove worked like a charm and with no worry about slicing my hand in the process. I love this glove.
How do you make creamy scalloped potatoes even creamer?
- Evenly sliced potatoes will cook more consistently … use a mandolin.
- Heavy whipping cream. Don’t try to skimp on fat calories and use half and half. The fat content in cream simply cooks better and doesn’t separate like milk or half and half. In addition, when the potatoes cook, they will release some moisture into the cream. Better to have that moisture mix with thick luscious cream for a beautiful thick sauce.
- Use Yukon Gold Potatoes. I find them creamier.
Now for this killer recipe, it’s the best scalloped potatoes recipe I’ve found. Enjoy!
Recipe for Old Fashioned Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
I hope you give this creamy scalloped potatoes recipe a try. And if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating. And leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite creamy scalloped potatoes recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Potato Casserole Recipes
- Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole
- Potato Casserole with Bacon and Onion
- Grandpa Johnson’s Potato Casserole with Corn Flakes
- Potatoes Dauphinoise
And of course no self respecting spoon full of scalloped potatoes would not be served without a slice of ham and a spear or two of asparagus. Take a look at this Honey and Thyme Glazed Ham Recipe.
Old Fashioned Creamy Scalloped Potato Casserole
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for greasing
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes peeled and very thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°. Grease an 8" square baking dish with butter; set aside.
- Melt butter in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, 8–10 minutes.
- Add flour; cook, stirring, until smooth, 2 minutes.
- Add cream, milk, thyme, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Add potatoes; cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are just tender, 8–10 minutes.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish. Using a spoon, press mixture down; sprinkle with paprika. Bake until golden brown and a knife inserted into middle of potatoes slides in easily, about 40 minutes.
Nutrition
Old Fashioned Creamy Scalloped Potatoes Casserole …It’s what’s for a Side Dish.
Hello. I inherited this cookbook from my Mom called Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, by Meta Given. Published 1947. It still has little scribbles in it from my baby hands. It literally has thousands of recipes…a lot I’d never even heard of ! But there is a scalloped potato recipe called Escalloped Potatoes and Ham, and is very similar to the one here on your site. Except there is no flour use in it. Just ham, potatoes, milk and salt. It involves bringing everything to a boil, adding the potatoes, then to a boil again. I can’t really see how it would thicken….. Anyway I was excited to find your recipe as it’s very close to the one in the “Modern” cookbook lol. I plan on following it tonight and using my mandolin of course. I’m still debating whether or not to add ham or not…..
Cheers,
Lee
I have a couple of extremely old cookbooks similar to the one you describe. And yes, so many recipes that I have not idea what they are. Rather fun to browse.
When my mom started making scalloped potatoes when I was a child, there was always ham involved. So delicious.
With regard to making scalloped potatoes without flour: The starch that is released from the potatoes, after they boil in the milk should thicken the sauce. The only way it wouldn’t is if the recipe calls for too much milk.
Did you try it? Did it thicken?