The gratin dauphinois is made with raw potatoes, thinly sliced, and cream, cooked in a buttered dish rubbed with garlic; for 1 kg of potatoes, about 600 ml of cream, 25 g of butter and a clove of garlic are needed. The potatoes are peeled and sliced to the thickness of a coin, preferably with a mandoline; they are layered in a shallow earthenware dish and cooked in a slow oven, at about 150°C, for more than an hour; the heat is raised for the last 10 minutes of the cooking time.[3][4]

Recipes given by many authorities including Auguste Escoffier and Austin de Croze call for the addition of cheese and eggs to the dish;[3] Robert Carrier and Constance Spry give recipes including these additions.[5][6]

The dish is distinguished from gratin savoyard by the use of cream, and from ordinary gratin potatoes by the use of raw rather than boiled potatoes.[7] It is a quite different dish from pommes dauphine.[3]