I use red potatoes, but take the skins off. You can make a white sauce, cube the potatoes and call them "creamed potatoes." That's what my mom did. Dot with some butter on the top before you bake the dish and they will be yummy. Not too keen on COM soup with scalloped potatoes.

I'm not a scalloped anything fan, so I can't help on the potato question. It does sound like it will need a little flavor punch though.Hmmm...maybe some garlic and smoked paprika?

I make scalloped potatoes without cheese, as a matter of fact we had it last night for dinner - it's a family favorite :-) I like the recipe that's in a Betty Crocker Cookbook - basically, you saute some chopped onion in 3 tablespoons of butter, then add 3 tablespoons of flour and cook until smooth and bubbly. Add 2 1/2 cups milk (I used 1% and it was fine) and 1 teaspoon of salt and cook and stir until boiling - boil and stir one minute.

Peel and slice 2 pounds of potatoes (I like russets) and put them in a buttered 2 quart casserole. Pour the white sauce over the top and dot with another tablespoon of butter if you want.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 350F, then uncover and bake for another hour or until tender. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

While it sounds bland, it really isn't. If you want to kick it up a notch you could add some garlic at the end of sauteeing the onion or add a head of reasted garlic to the white sauce before you pour it over the potatoes.

I grew up making a plain scalloped potatoes and it was delicious. Layer thin sliced white potatoes in a baking dish. On each layer sprinkle some flour and salt and pepper. Add ham. When baking dish is full, pour whole milk to cover and bake until tender.

This sounds so mundane and such a non recipe, but it never turned out bad.

All the big questions: how much______? Basically, it doesn't really matter! Although I always used a 13 x 9 inch pan and white potatoes.

I make them pretty much the same as bumblebeez. Usually in a casserole dish and I like to layer with some just raw onion for a bit more flavor and I use butter in mine also.

Each layer is:
~ Sliced peeled potatoes
~ flour
~ salt and pepper
~ a few slices of onion
~ several small chunks of butter

Do as many layers as needed to almost fill the dish. You can put the ham on top towards the end of baking, then it doesn't get dried out. No reason not to layer it in if you want. I prefer them with meat cooked separately though.

I almost cover the top with milk.

Nancy

I like a bit of fresh grated nutmeg in any potato dish that has milk or cream in it..mmmmm mmmm

Duh. Yes, I use onion and butter too.

..... actually, Scalloped Potatoes don't have cheese; when cheese is added it's called Potatoes Lyonaise.

Thanks for sharing the good-sounding recipes. You've given me a new idea for Christmas dinner.

So it sounds like Crm of Mushroom soup is not such a hot idea. What about leaving the skin on red potatoes? I always like the color it adds and the taste. Now I wonder if I need to also serve sweet potatoes. We always have to have rice too. My gosh, what a lot of starch!

Lazy, nothing wrong with Cream of Mushroom soup..if you like it use it. I've never liked it..so I used cream of celery or chicken..but I've since realized that it's just as easy to open a can of soup..as it is to make a quick roux and make a white sauce flavored as you like, and you can control the sodium level. And the flavors.
I'd leave the skin on too..I don't mind it..I made potato soup yesterday out of yellow potatoes..skin on..no one cared. :O)
Oh and starch over load doesn't bother me. :o)

I refer to non cheese white sauce covered potatoes and baked as Scalloped..but with cheese in it..I call Au Gratin.

I made some the other day. I sauted onions in butter first, then added the flour. Cooked it for a minute, then added the liquid (3/4 chicken broth and 1/4 milk) and cooked it until thick. Added pepper and a little bit of poultry seasoning (no salt because of the broth). Poured it over the potatoe slices and mixed it all up and baked it (with cover until half done and then without cover until done to desired consistency). It was nice and creamy! I've had bad experiences making this dish because there was always too much "sauce" that was too "liquidy". I found out that I wasn't making my sauce thick enough by not cooking it long enough.

Next time though, I will sprinkle some paprika on top with a little parsley. My SIL does this and also adds a little bit of onion soup mix to her liquid. It had a lot of taste but I found it to be a little too salty for me.

I've just pulled a casserole of scalloped potatoes out of the oven. I never use any cheese or tinned soup and the dish is very flavourful.

Thanks for sharing your recipe, SharonCb! I had never thought to add some dry onion soup mix to the white sauce and I bet that would be good.
Teresa

Onions, parsley, green chiles. Otherwise, like canarybird's ideas.

I've never liked the mushroom soup idea. No matter what else you do it always tastes like you dumped a can of soup in there and called it food.

I love to make scalloped potatoes, especially with Christmas dinner. This is basically the recipe I use (unfortunately, lots of heavy cream, but what the heck, it's not exactly diet season) and I leave off the parmesan as my family is not a big fan. For a big casserole, I use a quart (!) of cream..

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Butter
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for broiling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a saucepan, heat up the cream with a sprig of thyme, chopped garlic and nutmeg.

While cream is heating up, butter a casserole dish. Place a layer of potato in an overlapping pattern and season with salt and pepper. Remove cream from heat, then pour a little over the potatoes. Top with some grated Parmesan. Make 2 more layers. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Sprinkle some more Parmesan and broil until cheese browns, about 5 minutes.

This may not be what you are looking for, but it's really good and extremely simple. I think it's Tyler Florence's recipe originally, to give credit where credit is due! Oh, and definitely no COM soup! You can also slap some buttered breadcrumbs on the top to finish...yummy, too.
gigi

Just to show you how it looks when spooned onto a plate.
It's not floating in sauce (depends how much you make of course) but has just enough creamy moisture and crispy crusty bits on top to be just right for our taste:

Here it's pretty traditional to use cream or milk or a mixture of both, with a packet of dry French onion soup mixed through, as the liquid for the scalloped potatoes.

Can I prepare the scalloped potatoes the day before using either the white sauce or can soup and bake it the following day? I think I'll bake the sweet potatoes the day before and just reheat. I'll be making 4 pies on the day of the dinner plus other preparations so prefer to do as much as I can the day before.

Personally I don't think scalloped potatoes hold up well at all. The potaotes tend to discolour, at least that is my experience.

Sharon, I meant to say over in WFD, that your guest is getting some lovely lovely meals, both at your home and out.

Those potates look scrumptious, and I think I'll try them again. I don't have a mandolin, so my slices are usually thicker. Would you just cover 1st AND cook longer? I have given up on this since I have had al dente potatoes more often than I'd like to think about.

If you're going to use Creamo Mushroom soup you can also alternate the layers by using Creamo Chicken soup as well. I'm not ashamed to say we have it that way..LOL

Maureen my slicer isn't one of those heavy duty expensive stainless steel mandolines, but a simple angled plastic frame with an inset changeable blade...{{!gwi}}. I would get one just for doing scalloped potatoes if I didn't have one, but they're also the perfect gadget for slicing English cucumbers paper thin for salads.
I imagine that covering the casserole and cooking longer would also cook the potatoes right through, when you remove the foil near the end to brown the top a little.

Thanks for your comment about the meals.....our friend is a batchelor who gets no home cooking in Germany so he's happy especially to see a load of fresh vegetables on his plate when I'm doing the cooking. He says the restaurants where he eats in Germany have only frozen or tinned veg at this time of the year. We're lucky to have a good supply of fresh produce available here year round.

SharonCb

I make potatoes similar to what you are talking about lazy cook and they are delicious. I see nothing wrong with a can of cream of... every six months or so. Mix your cream of mushroom soup well with about 3/4 cup of milk. Layer your sliced potatoes with layers of sliced or chopped onions and slices of green bell pepper. Make several layers. Pour mushroom mixture over the top, cover and cook until potatoes are done. The onion and bell pepper taste goes all through the potatoes.