how to make perfect french fries?

[zozzen]

I'm indulged myself in eating a lot of home-made french fries and always want to make it better and better.

My way is to put potato in boiling water for 10 mins, make it dry and put it into boiling oil with some butter. The taste is fairly good, but seems to be quite different from what i had in Belgium.

Does anyone know how to make perfect french fries?

Thanks!

[Senzhi]

Happy to see somebody recognising French fries do not originate from France.

There's no need to boil your potatoes in water first. Equally no need to use butter.

What is important is that you boil your fries 2 times in the oil/frying fat. The first time 5-10 minutes (depending on personal taste, darker/crispier or lighter/softer). Then you take them out, letting the fries drip for a minute or two. Then let them boil again for 5 minutes. Finally take them out, let them drip the oil, and serve them in paper tissue (which will further absorb any oil excess).

Even in Belgium all fries will taste different, depending on the kind of potatoes as well the kind of oil/frying fat you use. And every person has a slightly different way of cooking, which is OK, since everybody has a different taste.

Just make sure your oil/frying fat is clean, refreshing it regularly: it is most of the time the cause of fries tasting awful.

Edited October 30, 2008 at 05:40 AM by Senzhi

[liuzhou]

What Senzhi says, but also I like to soak the sliced potato in cold water for a while to remove some of the starch, then dry thoroughly before frying. The double fry is essential.

Type of oil / fat is also important. Beef dripping is best, but difficult to procure. A tasteless, neutral oil is most practical. Butter is unnecessary. I usually use corn or sunflower oil. Oils can be re-used if filtered.

[maximinus]

Best way - although work intensive. This takes me about 4 hours!

Peel potatoes and cut into chips. *Important* - you MUST make sure they are of a similar size.

Place in slightly salted water and simmer until they are on the verge of falling apart. Carefully drain the water away and then place them into a fridge for an hour. This will dry the now wet chips.

Now place the chips onto a baking tray and lightly cover in oil. Place in the oven and roast them on a low temperature (about 90 minutes is good). You'll need to turn them over occasionally. Take out. The chips should be highly textured - they are edible now, but the last part completes the picture.

Drain the oil off the chips and then place back into the fridge until cool. Just before you want to eat them, heat a pan of oil until hot (as hot as possible, really). Flash fry (the technique is called 'frenching' I belive, thus french fries) for about 20 seconds. Try with a test chip as this last stage is very quick. You *must* watch at this point, as the chips will over brown very quickly if not careful.

Serve with a dash of salt. Best chips in the world

[Scoobyqueen]

Zozzen – I do my chips like yours but twice in oil as mentioned above. Last lot very hot to brown them. I use sel de guerande for the salt afterwards.

Anyway chips are British :-)

[Senzhi]

Anyway chips are British

Absolutely true. All the 'chips' I ate in England and Ireland were baked in the oven. Usually served with vinegar. Typically British and equally world famous as "fish and chips".

However, 'fries' are fried in oil. Belgian origin, and served with a pinch of salt and mayonnaise. It's only in the US that they added the word "French" to it, presumably due to a simple geographical mistake. It's understandable: it's very easy to miss Belgium, we're not the biggest country in the world, and almost half of its population are native French speakers. Non-English speaking European countries do not use the word "French" in front, but simply "fries" in their local language.

But of course, what really matters is that everybody makes them towards their own preferred taste.

Edited October 30, 2008 at 03:41 PM by Senzhi

[adrianlondon]

All the 'chips' I ate in England and Ireland were baked in the oven.

What? Where did you eat, the must run-down pubs you could find?

Every fish & chip shop I've ever seen fries their chips.

[Scoobyqueen]

I just looked it up. They originated in Belgium apparently. British chips are always fried in lard.

[liuzhou]

I have no idea what maximnus is describing, but it ain't French Fries and it certainly isn't chips.

Place in slightly salted water and simmer until they are on the verge of falling apart.

Potato soup?

Drain the oil off the chips and then place back into the fridge until cool

The oil or the chips?

All the 'chips' I ate in England and Ireland were baked in the oven.

What?????!!!!?

Did you go to Disneyland England?

[Senzhi]

Did you go to Disneyland England?

Not meaning to say that there are no places where they do things differently (as everywhere in the world), but, indeed any time I'd order chips, they would be thickly sliced and baked in the oven. Maybe only after having been fried (that I honestly don't know).

That is not to say that there aren't places where they serve fries only fried in oil. Only talking about my personal experiences (also more in Ireland than in England).

I also remember in Portugal they only fry them once and serve them together as vegetables with rice and eggs. That was really in the middle of nowhere: Tancos to be exact.

French fries (Wikipedia) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fries

And for a good-hearted funny anecdote, which made the Belgians very amused ... Freedom fries (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries

[liuzhou]

99% of chip outlets in England fry their chips. I have never, ever been served baked chips in England. And I lived there for more decades than I want to think about.

Did you ever go in a chip shop and see these miraculous ovens?

[adrianlondon]

Maybe it was a jacket potato ;)

[Senzhi]

Did you ever go in a chip shop and see these miraculous ovens?

Actually yes, for that's how I know they're baked. On my first visit to the Isle of Wight (1996) I hooked up with some friends in Portsmouth: simple big oven with the thickly cut chips nicely laid out on a tray. Nothing fancy, nothing special. Also in Ireland it is common pub food, but they're usually bought already cut and frozen and then simply put nicely on a tray in the oven. The same in how many people serve them at home. Any time I wanted fries I'd have to hop over to MacDonalds, Eddy Rockets or KFC ... or simply make them myself.

Quote from the above Wikipedia link: "Pre-made french fries have been available for home-cooking since the seventies, usually having been pre-fried (or sometimes baked)" ... "or cut thickly with the skin left on to create potato wedges, ..."

It could be they always served me potato wedges ... but then without the skin. I'd never eat any potatoes with skin which I didn't clean and cook myself.

And yes, they tasted delicious too. The only thing I didn't like was the vinegar, but a simple request always solved that problem.

Edited October 30, 2008 at 04:40 PM by Senzhi
Added quote.

[zozzen]

It's the post that i re-read most in chinese-forums.com and this top Belgian national secret makes me so excited to almost forget to make a reply to say "THANKS!" I love it.

Senzhi, when we boil it twice, do we need to use different temperature for the oil?

Max, I met a Belgian before and he told me similar way to make perfect french fries, but at that time we were too rush to go for details. I will absolutely try this and may get back the perfect fries i had in belgium many years ago ( if my friends knew i spent 4-hours to make french fries they would call me nuts )

Liuzhou and Scoobyqueen, the ingredients you mentioned are hard to get in China. I often use 五味粉, 辣椒粉, 孜然粉 and 椒鹽 to season them. It's nice.

WOW! It's a big tragedy to read this at 1:23am. How could i sleep?

[zozzen]

Maybe it was a jacket potato ;)

opps, if it's not off-topic too far, is it okay to ask how to make a perfect jacket potato?

There's a lot recipes shown by google, but how would you do it?

[.Liu.]

Ahah, yes, that's always amazing to french people to know how our "frites" are translated in english... We all know that french fries are coming from belgium, though definitive evidence for their origin is difficult to present. There are numerous jokes about belgian and fries in France...

Liu

[adrianlondon]

Buy a decent potato, wash it and, umm, stick it in the oven for just over an hour. That's it ;)

You can microwave it for around 5 minutes first then put it in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes instead.

Some people say they should be wrapped in tinfoil. I don't recommend it. Some people say they should be skewered to ensure they're cooked throughout. If it was a really huge potato I'd do the skewer thing. You can also sprinkle them with salt.

[skylee]

I think I had my best (and biggest) jacket potato in Gdansk.

[gougou]

Non-English speaking European countries do not use the word "French" in front, but simply "fries" in their local language.

In German, we use a French loanword for them though, so that might add to the confusion.

Liuzhou and Scoobyqueen, the ingredients you mentioned are hard to get in China.

As far as I can see, they only mentioned oil and salt, right? That shouldn't be too big a problem - even if it's not exactly the same salt, the taste should be fairly similar.

BTW, we have one thread about French fries, one about potato mash - it seems the year of the potato is paying off after all!

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou and Scoobyqueen, the ingredients you mentioned are hard to get in China.

Potato, Oil. Salt.

What can't you find?

Senzhi, I am aware that there is such a thing as 'oven chips'. That doesn't change the fact that 99.99% of chips in England are fried. I would be very surprised if there was even one fish and chip shop in the whole country which bakes chips.

Bad pub food, yes.

But if you really want to replicate that McDonalds experience you are going to have to note the following

"Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*), citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). *

CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients)."

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/itemDetailInfo.do

I love the "may contain". They mean "We don't know".