I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

As regular readers of this website, and possibly even casual ones, will know, I am a fan of gratins. In the winter, the layered, cheesey, starchy goodness is a warming delight on a cold day.

What follows is Not A Gratin. It bears a certain similarity to a gratin, of course. The ingredients are the same, or nearly so; the cooking method is pretty much identical; the end result has about the same effect. Somehow, though, it just doesn't say gratin, to me. Perhaps this means that, to me, one of the essential features of a gratin is the layering. Perhaps it the visual appeal of the smooth leaves and the uncluttered surface. Perhaps I'm over-analyzing.

There are distinct advantages to the Not A Grain method, though. It's a lot less fussy, so it's easier to make. Because of the precutting of ingredients, it cooks a bit faster and is easier to eat. And it's still darn tasty. So if you're not in the mood to break out the mandolin and make thin slices, just grab your favorite knife and go for it.

• three largish sweet potatoes or about the same in some other sturdy-ish root vegetable
• an onion
• half a pound or so of cheese, whatever you like as long as it melts well. I used a nice cheddar
• a few strips of bacon or ham. I used some bacon which wasn't the usual belly cut, but looks more like a British style bacon.
• 1/2 pint or so heavy cream
• you might need salt and pepper depending on your cheese and ham

Dice the sweet potatoes. Put them in a colander and add just a pinch of salt - they can be kind of watery, so a bit of draining might help. This is entirely optional, of course. Dice the onion, the cheese and the bacon. Mix the whole thing together and pack it fairly tightly into a baking dish. Pour heavy cream on top, slowly since it's packed fairly tightly; don't fill it all the way, but you should be able to see it starting to creep up.

Cover the dish and put it in the oven. After half an hour, take it out and give it a stir. Put it back in for another half an hour. Stir. One more half-hour stint, this time uncovered, and it should be done.

As always, you can mix it up to your heart's content. If you leave out the meat, it's vegetarian - although getting it vegan would be hard with all the dairy. Use different tubers. Add some peppers or chilis. Or just do it the way I did and enjoy the simple life. And don't forget the leftovers ...