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Recipes, cooking lessons, tips, tricks, food blog, and more.
Recipes, cooking lessons, tips, tricks, food blog, and more.
Making perfect French fries is not very difficult, but there are a few things to be aware of. Here are 5 tips that will help improve your your fries.
24 July 2011
There is nothing like potato fries made properly. Frozen fries or baked fries, as convenient as they are, just don't cut it. Making your own is not that difficult. There are a few tricks to keep in mind. I first learned those tricks as a kid, and they were later confirmed when I did my cooking apprenticeship.
All potatoes are not made equal. Some spuds are better for mashing. Other potatoes better for baking. The best potatoes for deep frying are those that are half way between waxy and floury, a bit on the floury side.
My favourite potato for deep frying is a golden potato. In New Zealand it is known as "Agria". A similar potato in Canada and the United States is "Yukon Gold".
Your fries won't cook evenly if they aren't cut to the same size. Whether you like your fries large or small, it is important that you cut then evenly.
Potatoes cut evenly.
Some oils can't handle the high temperatures required for deep frying. Make sure the oil you select handles high temperatures well. These oils are said to have a high smoke point. Different people prefer different oils. Some chefs mix different oils for best results. The most well known oils for deep frying are:
If your oil is old, or has been used too much, it will give your fries a bad taste. Old oil turns rancid. Over-used oil changes colour, and accumulates debris.
The cooking oil should be clean and fresh.
First cook the fries at relatively low temperature - 150 °C (300 °F) until they are cooked through. Then cook them at about 190 °C (375° F) to make them crisp and brown.
This will give you a fry that is crisp, brown, and isn't greasy or oily.
This also allows you to have your fries almost ready ahead of time, cutting down on cooking time required just before serving. You could do the first cooking earlier in the day, finishing the fries off just before serving.
Bonus tip - if you eat salt on your fries, salt them as soon as they are out of the oil the second time. The salt will stick to the fries when they are still super hot. This means the fries taste better, not salty. And you need less salt.
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Cheese - milk's leap toward immortality. Clifton Fadiman
To be honest, I'm not a fan of fresh oil. I think that chips ("fries") taste much better when fried in used (but not *too* old) oil. Even better is a mix of oil and fat.
Comment by: Roy - July 25th, 2011 @ 14:58
I hear what you're saying, though fresh oil is better hands down than old oil :)
Using fats such as lard or suet in the mix is something some people like - and the taste is quite different. I didn't cover using animal fats because they tend to be hard to come by and many people shy on them from a health's perspective.
Comment by: Nicolas Steenhout - July 25th, 2011 @ 15:52
This is super helpful! I recently tried roasting with Agria potatoes and really notice the difference, so I'll definitely try them as chips once we clean the deep fryer out (so...not for a while, but I'll have it in mind)! With the double-frying, how is it best to store the pre-cooked chips? Can you freeze them? Do you have to let them cool completely and then re-fry them? Can you bake them after the first deep frying? :D Can't you tell I'm a home cook haha.
Comment by: Zo @ Two Spoons - September 16th, 2011 @ 17:45
Hi Zo, glad you find the post helpful :)
I would not freeze the pre-cooked chips. You don't have to cool them completely before the second frying. I often cook it first, then just remove the fries from the oil while it heats up to the 190C temperature. But you can keep the fries in the fridg for a day. I wouldn't do them too long ahead of time. I've never tried baking the fries, but I don't think it would turn out really well. Oven-baked chips cook in a completely different way.
Let me know how things turn out, once you've cleaned up your deep-fryer :)
Comment by: Nicolas Steenhout - September 16th, 2011 @ 17:55
Isn\'t cooking them twice unhealthy ? Wouldn\'t this cause the potato to retain more fat, due to being placed in low temperature oil (150 celsius). The health experts here in NZ tell us to put them into oil at 180 celsius so that less oil gets in, it basically seals the chip.
Comment by: John - January 29th, 2012 @ 11:34
@John, I haven't read the research, but in my experience, the double cooking method I use makes for a fry that is less saturated in fat. In any case, I don't think anyone can argue that French Fries are a health food in any case, and they should be enjoyed in moderation.
Comment by: Nicolas Steenhout - January 30th, 2012 @ 14:36