or – "baker's potatoes" – is a savoury dish of sliced potato and onion, cooked slowly in liquid in an oven.
Background The name of the dish is said to derive from an old practice in French villages, where householders without their own ovens would take the prepared dish to the village bakery. After the baker had finished making his bread, the potato dish would cook slowly while the oven gradually died down.Roux, p. 226; and Boulud, p. 84
Ingredients and variations The basic ingredients are potatoes, onions and cooking liquid. The dish, cooked slowly in a low oven, gradually absorbing the cooking liquid, has a crisp top layer of sliced potatoes, with a softer mixture of onion and potato beneath. It is usual to season it with some or all of garlic, herbs (particularly rosemary or sage), salt and pepper, and to top the dish with dabs of butter before cooking, but there are several published variations: Cook/writerCooking liquidAdditionsRef James Beard unspecified bouillon Beard, p. 136 Heston Blumenthal lamb stock and white wine Blumenthal, p. 259 Paul Bocuse water tomatoes Bocuse, p. 272 Daniel Boulud chicken stock Boulud, p. 84 Angela Hartnett chicken stock "Angela Hartnett's potatoes boulangere", The Guardian, 19 November 2012 Jean-Christophe Novelli chicken or vegetable stock blanched cabbage in the layers,Red Leicester cheese to top Novelli p. 190 Jamie Oliver vegetable stock Parmesan cheese to top "Boulangère potatoes", Jamie Oliver. Retrieved 27 November 2022 Jacques Pépin chicken stock Pépin, p. 262 Gordon Ramsay chicken stock Ramsay, p. 14 Michel Roux, Jr. chicken stock Roux, p. 226 Guy Savoy chicken stock and white wine Savoy, p. 128 Delia Smith vegetable stock "Potatoes boulangères with rosemary", Deliaonline. Retrieved 27 November 2022 Patricia Wells white wine and chicken stock leeks Wells, pp. 124–125 Despite the French name, the dish is not unique to France. The Yorkshire-born chef Brian Turner recalled in his memoirs (2000) being given an identical potato dish in his childhood,Turner, p. 7 and Bobby Freeman in a 1997 book about Welsh cuisine gives a recipe for traditional (onion cake), which she describes as "the same dish as the French ".Freeman, p. 161
When diced bacon is added to the potatoes and onions, and the dish is topped with grated cheese before baking, it is known as (or alternatively as ).Saulnier, pp. 210 and 212
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