Potatoes Hasselbeck Au Gratin

This is my 3rd or 4th time putting this together and a few notes from my experience:
1. Do not buy a ‘bag of potatoes.’ In a big sack, you are going to get huge variety of shapes and sizes and therefore different surface area (work, peeling) to volume (usable slices) ratios. You’ll also have eyes and all other manner of potato variables. Carefully select each one.
2. Salt. ‘generously salt’ well, we’ve got salty cheese and so not much? How much? This question dogged me. I wound up going 5 teaspoons for a 3quart casserole this year. Next time I make this, I’m going to drop this to 4.
3. Make ahead. Fortunately Kenji has a tip on here somewhwre I found that you can do the first covered bake and the second uncovered bake then fridge, then bake next day until bubbly covered, then cheese and crisp for 30ish. 3 quart pan means longer than 30/30/30 if not refrigerated.
4. I use more cheese than the recipe calls for, its a bigger dish, but I use more than 50% more. Say 6-7oz of greyure and 5 of parm. Less cheese, more salt probably.This is not a diet friendly dish haha.
5. I was worried about going cold dish to hot oven so I took out of fridge 30 min before final bake, and put on baking sheet.
6. This is a ton of prep– budget 2 hours if by yourself, using fresh thyme, grating the cheese, peeling and slicing the potatoes with a mandolin, and WEAR A CUT GLOVE.
7. Thank you Kenji, this dish makes me a hero every year.

by KillaWallaby