Fries / Chips / Frites -- eG Cook-Off 45

[nickrey]

Next bring deep fryer up to 180 C (350F) and fry chips for around four minutes (until very slightly coloured).

Drain and pat off excess oil with paper towels. Put back on wire rack and back into fridge (thirty minutes).

Next do the third cook in 180C oil until at desired colour.

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mmmm, those looked good!

May I ask why you used the same temperatures for both fries?

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My theory is that it seals the potato so not as much oil is absorbed. This may, however, be a personal fiction.

In practice, and as you can see from the pictures, it works very well and I don't have to reset the thermostat so double bonus.

[Peter the eater]

The other day I experimented on a small sack of fingerling potatoes that I found for half price. With two cuts you can make four slender chips out of one potato. I quartered them lengthwise, soaked and dried them, tossed them in olive oil, then roasted them skin-side down on a sheet for 25 minutes at 390F:

They were quite good, but not great. The smallest ones hardened through and were more like crisp potato chips. The fatter ones were creamy inside.

[Talat_kas]

I like fries which remain crispy for long time and have taste like any fast food restaurant so I got this recipe of making exact fries.

Ingredients:

4 Potato (elongated and thin pieces)

1 tspn salt

1 tbspn corn flour

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

1. Boil water and put potato pieces in it for 5-6 minutes then drain out water. Dry all the potato pieces completely. In a covered plastic bowl add 3 tbspn corn flour and put all the potato in it and shake well after cover it. Using drainer, take out the excess corn flour form the potato and put them in freezer for 15-20 minutes so that flour completely stick on it. Heat the oil gently, put potato in it and fry for atleast 5 -7 minutes on high flame until the fries become crispy.

I enjoy fries with ketchup but you can try this one with mayo and ketchup dip as well.

[abooja]

I finally achieved french fry nirvana last week. These fries were crisp outside and creamy inside, and stayed that way throughout the course of the meal. The crazy thing was how simple it actually was. No more double or triple frying for me. I just boiled thinnish Idaho steak fries for around eight minutes in salted water, briefly cooled them, then fried them once. That one fry took a good, long time, however -- maybe ten minutes. It was brand new oil (creamy vegetable), and the fries weren't browning to my satisfaction, so I let them go. Wow, were the results ever worth it! Next time, I might boil them for one minute less, because there were lots of broken pieces, but not much less. I think the combination of the overcooked potato and steamy, long fry (from water in potatoes) is what did the trick.

[Peter the eater]

thinnish Idaho steak fries

abooja, can you describe these a little further? I want to achieve french fry nirvana and it seems God is in the details.

[abooja]

thinnish Idaho steak fries

abooja, can you describe these a little further? I want to achieve french fry nirvana and it seems God is in the details.

Heh. Sorry about that.

Idaho potatoes, sliced into steak fry size, but on the thin side, perhaps 1/8th of an inch thick?

Not very helpful, I suppose.

[nickrey]

My wife, god bless her, had a business trip to the UK.

Foregoing the temptation to eat at the Fat Duck, she had lunch instead at Heston Blumenthal's gastro-pub, The Hind's Head.

She got the meal, I got the picture of the triple cooked chips.

Thought I'd share the joy.

Yes, one has a bite out of it to show the centre.

Edited May 22, 2009 by nickrey (log)

[JAZ]

I recently read this Serious Eats article by Kenji Alt which was reprinted in Best Food Writing 2010. After trying his method, I have to say that it produced the best fries I've ever made, and one of the best batches I've ever tasted. They didn't particularly remind me of McDonald's fries, which is what Alt was after, but they were great.

His method has three parts -- boiling in water with salt and vinegar, a very quick bath in hot oil, and the final fry after the fries cool. Mine were slightly larger than 1/4 inch in diameter (which is what he calls for) and they were quite cold when I fried them the final time, so they took quite a bit longer than the 3-1/2 minutes he specifies. Other than that, his technique worked perfectly.

I forgot to take pictures, but I have half of the batch in the freezer to test out the last part of his theory, so I'll try to remember to photograph them.

[Tri2Cook]

I did this a while back but I'm going to toss it into the mix here because it was fun. It was just an experiment in response to someone asking about ideas for dessert fries. They were getting lots of nice suggestions about fried cake sticks and things of that nature. I thought: why not make some actual dessert fries instead? So here's the result...

Post-simmering in vanilla bean infused sugar syrup:

After the first fry in low temp oil:

After the second fry in hot oil and seasoning with a salt/sugar blend:

An interior shot:

I can't say it's the best thing I ever had but they were tasty, crispy and held their texture for quite a while after frying. With some tweaking to the seasoning in the syrup and at the end, they would be even better but they're still not going to replace cake and ice cream for dessert.

[Kerry Beal]

Had a craving for fries - had to head out to the storage locker to cut the french fry cutter which had just made it's way out there this week as hubby has been cleaning because we have a new sitter coming to the house this week. 

 

Started by peeling 4 big russet baking potatoes and cut with the industrial cutter. 

 

Retrograded starch on control freak - 40 min at 55º C - then in 1% salted water cooked 5 min or so until tender. Next time I think I'll just add the salt to the pot and turn up the heat. 

 

 

 

Set the Control Freak up in the garage so the hot oil smell wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

3 big bottles of beef fat that have been in the fridge probably way too long but didn't smell oxidized. 

 

 

 

Blanched at 170º C until blonde and then returned to the oil at 196º C for a couple of minutes until browned. 

 

 

 

Beautifully crispy and stayed that way even when cool. 

 

 

And of course if you happen to have some poutine curds - you make a little poutine!

 

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Kerry Beal (log)

[KennethT]

51 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Had a craving for fries - had to head out to the storage locker to cut the french fry cutter which had just made it's way out there this week as hubby has been cleaning because we have a new sitter coming to the house this week. 

 

Started by peeling 4 big russet baking potatoes and cut with the industrial cutter. 

 

Retrograded starch on control freak - 40 min at 55º C - then in 1% salted water cooked 5 min or so until tender. Next time I think I'll just addd the salt to the pot and turn up the heat. 

 

 

Set the Control Freak up in the garage so the hot oil smell wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

3 big bottles of beef fat that have been in the fridge probably way too long but didn't smell oxidized. 

 

 

 

Blanched at 170º C until blonde and then returned to the oil at 196º C for a couple of minutes until browned. 

 

 

 

Beautifully crispy and stayed that way even when cool. 

 

 

And of course if you happen to have some poutine curds - you make a little poutine!

 

 

Very nice!  I don't remember my MC - what's the purpose of the 55C retrograde with regards to fries?  I know the purpose when making mashed potatoes (won't turn gluey) but I don't remember the purpose with fries.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

51 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Had a craving for fries - had to head out to the storage locker to cut the french fry cutter which had just made it's way out there this week as hubby has been cleaning because we have a new sitter coming to the house this week. 

 

Started by peeling 4 big russet baking potatoes and cut with the industrial cutter. 

 

Retrograded starch on control freak - 40 min at 55º C - then in 1% salted water cooked 5 min or so until tender. Next time I think I'll just addd the salt to the pot and turn up the heat. 

 

 

Set the Control Freak up in the garage so the hot oil smell wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

3 big bottles of beef fat that have been in the fridge probably way too long but didn't smell oxidized. 

 

 

 

Blanched at 170º C until blonde and then returned to the oil at 196º C for a couple of minutes until browned. 

 

 

 

Beautifully crispy and stayed that way even when cool. 

 

 

And of course if you happen to have some poutine curds - you make a little poutine!

 

 

 

Open toed would have been better but the shoes were a lovely touch.

 

I still have one of those industrial potato cutters in my amazon cart, but I fear my double-fried potato days are done.  Now I buy frozen.  I don't always even deep fry.  Particularly if I am cooking something in the APO.  My kitchen does not have the electrical capacity to run both the APO and the Paragon at the same time.  Sadly oven baking cannot compare to hot oil.

 

 

[lindag]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Started by peeling 4 big russet baking potatoes and cut with the industrial cutter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd love to see a photo of your cutter.

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Very nice!  I don't remember my MC - what's the purpose of the 55C retrograde with regards to fries?  I know the purpose when making mashed potatoes (won't turn gluey) but I don't remember the purpose with fries.

Activates Pectin Methyl esterase enzyme which strengthens the structure of the fry - according to Dave Arnold here.

 

1 hour ago, lindag said:

I'd love to see a photo of your cutter.

Here is the only one I can find of it right now. 

[gfweb]

26 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Activates Pectin Methyl esterase enzyme which strengthens the structure of the fry - according to Dave Arnold here.

 

Here is the only one I can find of it right now. 

Ever try adding a little vinegar instead?

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Ever try adding a little vinegar instead?

I think I did that in one of the Manitoulin trials - but I didn't keep scrupulous records sadly.