Do you have an insatiable hunger for potatoes? Do you have a fully-sated hunger for complicated recipes and having to cook all the time? This version of Pommes Anna, simplified and altered to an extent that will make French people cry, might be the recipe for you!

I try to eat unreasonable amounts of potatoes every day, so I want a food that doesn't take a lot of time to make, can be stored and reheated, and remains palatable after eating it for every meal for months at a time. The advantages of this recipe are:

• There's only 3 (required) ingredients.
• The crispy texture on top makes it more palatable long-term than mashed potatoes.
• The result can be reheated in a microwave in 2 minutes.

The main downsides are:

• It takes around an hour and a half to make (15-30 minutes of prep, 60 minutes of baking).
• You absolutely need a mandoline. Do not try to thinly slice 6 lbs of potatoes by hand.

Recipe

Prep Time: 15-30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Servings: 8

Nutrition¹:

• 3320 calories total (415 calories per serving)
• 7 g protein
• 12 g fat
• 72 g carbs
• Provides adequate amounts of most vitamins and minerals except for B12, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Calcium, and Selenium.

If this is your whole diet, you may want to eat some eggs along with it.

Equipment

• 9x13 inch casserole dish
• Mandoline

Safety Note: Always use mandoline guard!

Ingredients

• 6 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 tbsp table salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

Note: Recipe can be scaled to any baking dish. Fill dish with peeled potatoes to measure, then scale butter and salt proportionally.

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400° F.
2. Peel the potatoes and then slice them thinly with a mandoline (I use the 2mm setting on mine). Cut any leftover potato pieces into thin strips. Add all of the potato to a very large bowl.

3. Melt the butter.
4. Add the salt to the potato slices and mix it in.
5. Add the butter to the potato slices and mix it in.
6. Add mixture to the casserole dish. Placing the slices edge-up or randomly (my preference) will give you the most varied and crispy texture. Placing the slices flat will give you a more consistent custardy interior. Pour any additional liquid at the bottom of your bowl over the top.

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
8. Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes.

9. Let cool and then slice and eat, or cool entirely in the fridge for solid pretty-looking slices that reheat in 2 minutes in the microwave.

Notes

• Don't skip peeling the potatoes. There's plenty of fiber on the inside of the potatoes and the skin is too much. It also contains most of the solanine, and if you're eating this quantity of potatoes it's worth avoiding. Some of my example photos demonstrate skin-on and the result was not very good.
• You can mix the salt and butter at the same time if you want but I find it harder to get the salt mixed all the way through when I do that.
• Add an additional tsp of salt if it doesn't taste good to you. I don't recommend reducing the salt unless you know you don't like salt. 1 tbsp for 6 lbs of potatoes is already on the low end of how people typically salt mashed potatoes.
• I use this mandoline (not an affiliate link) but I don't know anything about mandolines and this is the only one I've ever used, so maybe take advice from Serious Eats instead.

Variations

• Add as much pepper or other seasonings as you want.
• Replace the butter with 1/2 cup of any oil suitable for baking. Light olive oils also work well, although I find the result less filling.
• You can probably reduce the oil and it will still cook acceptably, although the top will probably dry out rather than getting crispy, and it will get less palatable (in my opinion). This might be useful if you're doing this for weight loss reasons (my weight is stable on this diet).
• Try alternate potatoes if you want. The result will taste good although the texture will likely be different. I haven't tried this because Yukon Golds are objectively the best potato, but you do you.
• Dice 2 onions and sauté them in the butter before adding it to the potatoes.
• I've never tried alternative slice thicknesses, but it should work fine. At some point you might need to bake longer if the slices are too thick, but we're already baking for quite a long time.
• Place the slices flat if you want a more traditional custardy texture.