Cullen Skink (Traditional Scottish Smoked Haddock Soup) vs Gratin Dauphinois

Both dishes rely on milk, cream, butter and potato, but put them to very different work. In Cullen Skink, milk first poaches smoked haddock and then becomes the base of a brothy soup, with onion softened in butter, a bay leaf for aroma, and some potato mashed against the pan to thicken it lightly while most pieces stay whole. Gratin Dauphinois instead bakes thin potato slices slowly in garlic- and nutmeg-scented cream until tender, with a golden, bubbling top. One is smoky and spoonable; the other rich, layered and sliceable.