The slices, salted and peppered, are layered into a pan (see below), generously doused with clarified butter, and baked until they form a cake.

[1] It is then cut in wedges and served immediately on a hot plate, usually accompanying roasted meats.

[1] It consists of upper and lower halves which fit into each other so that the whole vessel with its contents can be inverted during cooking.

The dish is generally credited with having been created during the time of Napoleon III by the chef Adolphe Dugléré, a pupil of Carême, when Dugléré was head chef at the Café Anglais, the leading Paris restaurant of the 19th century, where he reputedly named the dish for one of the grandes cocottes of the period.

[1] In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck and Julia Child comment that to many people, "pommes Anna is the supreme potato dish of all time".