Scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin are similar in look because of their method of preparation and slight difference. While scalloped potatoes and the au gratin are made from potatoes that are sliced evenly, au gratin is slightly different because the potatoes must be sliced even thinner than the former. While the similar thing in both recipes is the butter, salt, and pepper including the milk. The obvious difference is just one ingredient.
While making scalloped potato, it is important to first boil and mix the sauce which will be used together. You can easily remove any ingredient you do not like as long as it is not butter, milk, or salt, you can choose to remove the pepper if you do not like spicy food. You can also replace the garlic with ginger, the onion should not be removed but it can be reduced for those that do not like onions in their food. While making the potatoes au gratin, the major ingredient cheese must be present. Although a lot of people don’t know the difference between the two, it can be known by how the dish comes out looking and by the taste. If you have tasted cheese before, you will agree with me that it has this unique taste, especially when melted.
You should mix all your ingredients not excluding the cheese, add your butter first, your flour, and mix it together with a spoon. Next, you add your onion powder or fresh onion, add your salt and your pepper. I prefer using black pepper when creating this recipe. After adding all of this, you should make use of a spatula or spoon to mix it well. You can now add your milk to the mix. As you pour the milk with one hand, make sure your other hand is stirring the sauce mix to prevent it from molding together as lumps.
While making your scalloped potatoes, you should arrange part of your potatoes in layers, placing the flat surface in the baking bowl and arranging others on top, add your mix to this and put in another batch In a layered form while adding the sauce mix on top of the potatoes and doing same for the last batch remaining. This method is different when making the au gratin recipe. All you need to do is, pour in your sauce mix first inside the baking pan and add your potatoes. Then, you add your mix on top of it, cover it, and leave it to bake for an hour, thirty minutes at most. Your potatoes au gratin is ready and it does not need to be arranged in layers like the scalloped potatoes.
