Cabbage and Potato Gratin Recipe (2024)

Why oh why can't people leave recipes alone. Made as written with cabbage and potatoes this is a knockout dish as far removed from the boiled cabbage and potatoes of my youth as the moon. The crème friache and gruyère give it a luscious smoothness and pack in the flavour. You are not eating it on a daily basis so if dairy intolerance isn't an issue, live large for a day and, in the words of some immortal British sage, "Don't muck about with the goods".

This is a very good recipe, but overly complicated. Just cut up potatoes and cabbage any old way (can do in processor) and precook in microwave. Place in baking pan, combine other ingredients, and pour them over. I increased the garlic to four cloves, substituted light sour cream for creme fraiche, and substituted dried for fresh sage.

I'd use whole milk greek yogurt instead of creme fraiche.

Why can't you shred the cabbage first, seems a lot of steps to the cabbage part!

Fantastic dish. Instead of boiling the cabbage I roasted 1" slices in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes instead. It began to caramelize the cabbage and removed some of the moisture. I did not precook the potatoes, just sliced them thinly. I could not find creme fraiche so I appreciated the suggestion to use greek yogurt. Otherwise I followed the directions and it is yummy.

i'm surprised and disappointed that martha shulman wants us to peel the potatoes....the skins are tasty and nutritious. i havent peeled a potato in decades and am surprised how many excellent chefs, such as shulman, are still peeling theirs....

I sliced the potatoes and cabbage in my Cuisinart food processor, and the results were superb and much easier than slicing by hand. I recommend the full 1 hour 30 minutes for a really toasty result--all the liquid absorbed, but the dish was creamy, not dry. BTW, if you buy a packet of fresh sage, you can freeze the rest for subsequent dishes.

Presumably the potatoes are also drained...but it is curious that this step is omitted, especially when the cabbage is explicitly drained not just once but twice!
I am a new subscriber to this NYT recipe blog and enjoy it. Surprising though that the recipes do not seem to be user tested--either from the standpoint of reading/intelligibility, nor from the standpoint of execution.

I'd love to make this, but am avoiding potatoes. Do you think this would work with celery root, rutabegas or winter squash instead?

Cabbage leaves are thick and tough. Parboiling them first softens them so that they will cook evenly with the potatoes, otherwise, the potatoes would be mush by the time that the cabbage was cooked.

Wonderful recipe !
I only had 2 small potatoes, so I made half a recipe. Replaced the garlic with a leek and didn't have any sage, but oh, what a delicious result !
Never realized cabbage could taste so great.
Thank you !!!

Made per recipe. Easy. Delicious outcome. Instructions don't specify how thick to slice potatoes. Chose 1/4" "ish" and seemed right based on result. All liquid was absorbed nicely as the dish cooked. 1 hr + 15 minutes was perfect baking time. Good news if serving as part of 'buffet table' meal - it is as good barely warm as hot. Next time thought: I'll reduce gentle boil time from 5 to 4 min.

This was delicious! But I substituted sharp cheddar since I didn't have any Gruyere on hand, and I found the flavor very pleasing. I also added a finely sliced raw onion when mixing all the ingredients. Yes, it took quite a while for the liquid to evaporate, but the longer this dish cooks, the better it tastes, as it carmelizes around the edges. I wonder if the addition of a tablespoon of flour would make that liquid more creamy.

Great recipe that obviously inspires many variations. Here is mine:Swapped tarragon for sage, Cheddar for Gruyère and Greek yogurt for crème fraiche, cause I was too lazy to shop.Skipped Parmesan.Added 8 ounces diced ham.Cooked in slow cooker because my oven is broken.This is the kind of recipe that is hard to screw up. So tasty and easy and flexible. Thanks!

We make this recipe exactly as written on a monthly basis all winter and love it. We have substituted sour cream for the creme fraiche when in a bind and its fine. The gruyere really makes the dish. We've enjoyed both green and savoy cabbage in this. And sometimes we add rutabaga in place of some of the potatoes. The potatoes are not so many they can't be carefully sliced by hand, but sometimes we get out the mandoline. Lovely and yummy recipe!

Both my cabbage and yellow potatoes had seen better days ;) -I sautéed the cabbage for color/flavor. No boiling. And I sautéed some onions lightly too. Oops, no onion in the recipe...Because my potatoes were a yellow variety and were getting soft I cut them 1/4"thin and did not boil them either. Used sour cream-what I had on hand. Followed directions after that. Served with a small amount of St. Agur blue cheese left over from a holiday cheese plate. OMGoodness, took this to another level IMHO.

Boiled 8 mins. 1 cup crème fraiche lil half and halfRosemary instead of sage.

Added a lot more potatoes (maybe 2-3 lbs rather than 1) without increasing the liquid and that took care of any extra liquid! Serving with roast leg of lamb and green beans for Xmas weekend!

I've made this a few times now and it's really good, but I'm still figuring out what works best. I've made it with both savoy and green cabbage and savoy is the clear winner. You get forkfuls of ruffled pieces which are delightful. I've done different things with the dairy products based on what I have and all work (e.g. 2 c half and half instead of milk and sour cream works great). You definitely need to let it sit at the end--the extra liquid will absorb. And generously salt the boiling water.

I prepared this recipe last night. The only change I made was to use sour cream instead of creme fraiche, otherwise followed to the letter. So disappointed to have the sauce break! Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions as to why it might have happened? Except for not looking very pretty, the dish was good.

Help! Mine was curdled and watery, even though I followed the recipe almost perfectly. Subbed sour cream, but surely that wouldn’t make such a difference? Bon Appetit has a cabbage gratin recipe as well. Theirs has a note saying the cabbage *must* be roasted prior to adding the cream and cheese or it will be too watery, so my guess is that there was still too much moisture in my cabbage. Apart from the curdling, the flavor was great,so I will definitely try again to see if I get this right.

Absolutely delicious! I made a vegan version of this recipe, I just replaced the crème fraiche with a vegan roux (plant based butter, flour, salt, oat milk) I added some seasoning to it, I’m sure a plant based cheese could work well in it too. Followed the rest of the recipe exactly and added some breadcrumbs on the top to bake. Highly recommend it!

Delicious! Wanted to use up my cabbage and potato, so made this recipe with what I had at home. It is great, even with my substitutions (oat milk for milk, coconut cream for crème fraîche, Edam cheese only, and thyme for sage). I shredded the cabbage before boiling too.

I always try to add a bit of heat to "bland" dishes I make and in this case added a bit of Aji Amarillo paste and also some white pepper. I liked the result. PS: I could not get savoy cabbage and used Napa cabbage instead, which worked well.

I used 300ml of cream instead of milk. Worked a treat!

I made this last night and it was good. I was afraid my 2.9 Q baking dish would be too small, so I put it into a shallower, larger dish - mistake. Luckily I was watching and realized it was done in an hour, but I lost a lot of the liquid, thus the velvety sauce. It was still good, certainly, but next time I will trust and just add to another dish if I doubt it :-)

Along with a salad, this made a lovely dinner. My husband isn't big into cheese so I spooned half the mixture (before adding cheese) on one side of the pan and then added the cheese into the remainder of the mixture and added it to the other side (for son, who loves cheese). Although not what was called for, the cheddar and fresh mozzarella I had in the fridge, needing to be used up, worked great. Used 1 c. half and half and 1 c. lowfat milk; used low-fat yogurt instead of the creme fraiche.

This is a great way to use up a lot of cabbage. A real comfort food dish even with low-fat milk and fat free Greek yogurt in place of crème fraiche. Didn’t skip the cheeses though. This is a keeper.