Scalloped potatoes are a quintessential comfort food, combining tender potatoes, rich cream, and a golden, crispy crust. One element that sets Martha Stewart's scalloped potatoes apart from the rest is her unique approach to incorporating the cream, and the science behind it makes it clear why this technique works.

Instead of pouring cold cream over the sliced potatoes in the baking dish, Stewart warms the cream in a pot with the potatoes. This step not only speeds up the cooking process, reducing the time needed for the cream to heat up in the oven, but also has a transformative effect on the dish's texture by making it richer and creamier.

When potatoes are boiled normally, their starches dissolve into the water, but by parboiling the potatoes in the cream, the starches mix with the cream instead and create a thicker, richer mixture. As the potatoes cook in the oven, they absorb more of the starchy cream, enhancing their flavor and creating a rich, velvety texture.