The Only 4 Ingredients Julia Child Used For Scalloped Potatoes

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Culinary legend Julia Child became the First Lady of TV cooking in the U.S. and shaped a generation of household chefs. Making French cuisine accessible to Americans for the first time, she's still our go-to source for the right way to accomplish various tasks in the kitchen, like making the best hard-boiled eggs or cooking perfect asparagus. While many French recipes are complicated to execute, Child gifted us with some that are quite simple. Her favorite soup had just three ingredients, for instance, and her recipe for scalloped potatoes is similarly straightforward with only four main components.

Gratin dauphinois is the French version of scalloped potatoes. Child's method, as published in "The French Chef Cookbook," is composed of just potatoes, milk, a garlic clove, and butter (then seasoned with salt and pepper).

Preparing the dish is also pretty simple as French recipes go. Slice the potatoes and soak them in cold water. Boil milk, the mashed garlic clove, and the salt and pepper in a baking dish, and then add the potatoes and butter. Bake in a 425-degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 minutes or until the spuds are tender, the milk has been absorbed, and the surface has developed a nice brown color. That's it. The rich dish should then be enjoyed hot, but Child recommended pairing it with meat dishes like chicken, turkey, or veal.

The absence of cheese is what makes Julia Child's gratin dauphinois, as published in "The French Chef Cookbook," technically scalloped potatoes rather than potatoes au gratin. One doesn't miss the cheese component, though: The key is the milk. When the potatoes are cooked in milk, they are enriched without being robbed of their natural flavor. This renders the addition of cheese unnecessary. However, Child's original recipe for gratin dauphinois, as published in her groundbreaking book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," did include cheese — a cup of Swiss cheese, to be precise. So, we can infer that Julia would approve of a little extra cheese.

In both versions of the recipe, Child simply instructs using boiling potatoes without clarifying a specific variety. However, there are definitely good spuds for the job (and bad ones too). Focus on waxy types, or even all-purpose (which fall somewhere in the middle of waxy and starchy). In a pinch, Yukon gold will do the trick. Whichever type of potato you opt for (since the cooking queen left the field somewhat open), both recipes instruct peeling the potatoes and slicing them to a thickness of ⅛ inch.