Gratin is a widespread culinary technique in food preparation in which an ingredient is topped with a browned crust, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese

Grated cheese

Grated cheese is a type of cheese that has gone through the process of being grated. Typically, aged hard cheeses are used for this purpose. A hand grater can be used to manually grate the cheese, or cheese can be bought already grated...

, egg and/or butter. Gratin originated in French cuisine

French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

 and is usually prepared in a shallow dish of some kind. A gratin is baked or cooked under an overhead grill or broiler

Grilling

Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat quickly and meat that has already been cut into slices...

 to form a golden crust on top and is traditionally served in its baking dish.

A gratin dish refers to the shallow oven-proof container traditionally used to prepare gratins and similar dishes.

Terminology

The etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 of gratin is from the French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 in which the word gratter meaning "to scrape" as of the "scrapings" of bread or cheese, and gratiné, from the transitive verb form of the word for crust or skin. The technique predates the current name which did not appear in English until 1846 (OED, s.v. "gratin").

In addition to the well-known potato dishes such as gratin dauphinois, cooking au gratin is a widely used cooking technique in the preparation of numerous dishes including many meat, fish, vegetable and pasta dishes, fennel

Fennel

Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...

, leek

Leek

The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...

s, crabmeat, celeriac

Celeriac

Celeriac is also known as celery root, turnip-rooted celery or knob celery. It is a kind of celery, grown as a root vegetable primarily for its large and bulbous hypocotyl rather than for its stem and leaves. The swollen hypocotyl is typically used when it is about 10–12 cm in...

 and aubergine

Aubergine

The eggplant, aubergine, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash is a plant of the family Solanaceae and genus Solanum. It bears a fruit of the same name, commonly used in cooking...

s (eggplant).

The term le gratin signifies the "upper crust" of Parisian society, and, as gratin, has since been borrowed into English.

Potatoes gratiné

Potatoes gratiné is one of the most common of gratins and is known by various names including gratin dauphinois (see below). In North America, the dish is referred to variously as scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin, or au gratin potatoes. (Note that the term scalloped originally referred to a style of seafood dish rather than to one specifically based on the scallop

Scallop

A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...

). In French-speaking Canada, the dish is referred to as pommes de terre au gratin . Australians and New Zealanders refer to it as scalloped potatoes or potato bake.

Gratin dauphinois

The name gratin dauphinois refers to the Dauphiné

Dauphiné

The Dauphiné or Dauphiné Viennois is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of :Isère, :Drôme, and :Hautes-Alpes....

 region of France, where this method of preparing potatoes is a specialty. The dish, typically using ingredients of thinly sliced and layered potatoes and cream cooked in a buttered dish rubbed with garlic, has become a classic potato preparation. Eggs may sometimes be mixed with milk and cream rather than simply using cream. Gratin savoyard, a variation found in the neighbouring Savoie

Savoie

Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...

 region, consists of alternating layers of sliced potatoes, Beaufort cheese

Beaufort (cheese)

Beaufort is a hard, rather sharp cheese made from cow's milk and is similar to gruyère. It is produced in the area around Beaufort located high in the French Alps in the Savoie region of France...

, and pieces of butter, with bouillon

Bouillon (broth)

Bouillon, in French cuisine, is simply a broth. This name comes from the verb bouillir, meaning to boil. It is usually made by the simmering of mirepoix and aromatic herbs with either beef, veal, or poultry bones and/or with shrimp, or vegetables in boiling water.This is not to be confused with...

 as the liquid.

Seafood

Sole au gratin is a raw fish style of gratin, which often is covered with a mushroom covering. Many fish-based gratins use a white gratin sauce and cheese, and achieve browning quickly. Cozze gratinate is a mussel

Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...

s-based recipe found in Italy.

Vegetable

Gratin Languedocien is a preparation made with eggplant and tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

, covered in breadcrumbs and oil, then browned. This dish is similar to the Italian dish known as melanzane alla parmigiana. Other vegetables commonly used in gratin dishes include cauliflower

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed...

, spinach

Spinach

Spinach is an edible flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm. Spinach may survive over winter in temperate regions...

, and butternut squash

Butternut squash

Butternut squash , also known in Australia and New Zealand as butternut pumpkin, is a type of winter squash. It has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. It has yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp. When ripe, it turns increasingly deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. It grows on...

.

A gratin with potatoes, onions, and preserved fish is a traditional Swedish dish, where it is known as Janssons frestelse

Janssons frestelse

Janssons frestelse is a traditional Swedish casserole made of potatoes, onion, pickled sprats, bread crumbs and cream. It is commonly included in a Swedish julbord, but can be eaten on other occasions as well.-Preparation:...

("Jansson's Temptation") and is similar to a French dish of potatoes with anchovies.

The use of sauces, béchamel sauce

Béchamel sauce

Béchamel sauce , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine and is used in many recipes of Italian cuisine, for example lasagne. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white roux...

 and mornay sauce

Mornay sauce

A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Usually, it consists of half Gruyère and half Parmesan cheese, though some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or white Cheddar....

being the most widely used, is common in the preparation of gratinéed vegetable dishes, as well as many other gratin dishes.