What's the secret to home-made fries?

Hey Mame........I have no answer but I'm coming back to find out what it is when you get it!

Something tells me that no matter how you make them.....they will just naturally be good or better than most can make them.

Love the little girl in your avatar. Adorable!

Thank you

My view is still the stick person - what's up with that? Gravatar is either slow or I'm not doing it right.

Hello Mame.
Two days ago I was investigating the question you asked about french fries. Google sent me to e-how.com. Their explanation was to cut and soak fries for fifteen minutes. Put fries in a bag of flour, shake, and fry. Mediocre at best.
Soaking overnight, and frying them twice seems like a lot of work for french fries, but, after further investigating, that is the way of the Belgians . The inventors. Fries are fries....but a fry that is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside is a great fry.

We use whatever cheap vegetable oil we have on hand, canola or similar. Par boiling just reduces the frying time as far as i can tell. oil temp is important. hot enough to cook the potatoe through not so hot as they dry right out. oil should be "begining to smoke" is the term i have heard.
Drop one piece of potatoe in the hot oil, it should "fizz" almost immeditly. If this happens the oil is hot enough. Be carefull here as the oil may boil over and catch fire. have a tea towel or fire blanklet close handy to smother flames. Add the rest of the potatoe 1/4 of the batch at a time to prevent boil over. Never leave a batch of fries cooking stay in the kitchen.

there are (supposedly) "better" types of potatoe for fries.

A lot of the flavor relies on the salt you use too.

Get super FINE salt if you can .
It should be a type of salt that does not show after you sprinkle it on the fries.



mmmmmmmmm
fries
come over and cook some here

shewolfn's got it.Deep fry 'em crispy and salt them just right.... the simple pleasures are the best.

Took meat out of the freezer to thaw. Have to get potatoes.

Peanut oil is tops. More expensive. Healthier. Some of the best fries I've had have been fried in peanut oil.

the needed step is the blanch, see here:
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/restaurants/bestbites/5223.html

and here:
http://seekingthegoodlife.blogspot.com/2007/08/great-french-fry.html

I have made homemade fries many times...

Here is my method. Since frying them is such a waste of oil and also VERY "dangerous"... I bake them.

Peel (if desired) and cut them to the size you like. Then put them in a bowl and use enough canola oil (best oil for high heat) so they are all completely covered then drain. Then lay them on a moderately oiled pizza pan or cookie sheet and bake at a fairly high temp, around 400 degrees. Open the over often, especially at first and keep shifting them around with a spatula, so they don't only brown on the bottom. They come out less greasy and the mess is MUCH easier to deal with.

The potatoes need no parboiling or flour etc. You will have to experiment with the heat. This will take several tries to get them just right. If they end up cooking too fast on the outside but hard inside then lower the heat next time. If they end up cooked inside but are not crispy on the outside raise the heat. Or vary the heat, get them crispy on high heat then lower the heat to about 300 degrees to finish the inside.

If you decide to use the deep fry method do not salt them before you put them in the oil. Salt breaks down oil and when the oil becomes broken down you can tell by the smoke it emits and smell of the oil. If the oil starts to smoke then it is about to burst into flames. This is why at home the baking method is much easier and even healthier. Do not leave frying oil unattended even for a moment.

I have seen fryalotars at restaurants while working at them burst into flames before and it is a horror. I would suggest not using the oil frying method at all.

When the fries are starting to look done sprinkle some salt on them and mix them around a bit. Better to be sparing on the salt and salt them on your plate later if needed.

Hope this helps

Oh yummy! Do you have a deep frier?

Fries are super easy. Either way, I think they are delicious. Depends how you like them. Parboiling, double frying or not.

My favorite is the easiest. Put them through a potato cutter (consistent size of fry so some aren't all soft and others super crispy), towel dry them off so they are not wet, put them in the frier with lard of your choice or oil (l like plain old canola) and once they begin to float a bit, take them out and cover them with good kosher salt.

For the salt, just put it in a grinder so it's super fine. Kosher or sea salt is da best!

Mm mm can't wait to hear how yours turn out. And what kind of tater you using?

I don't really like reds in a fry. White or gold are for sure the best to me.

mm.

Well, I will try the salt tip and do one batch parboiled and the other not. I'll also use Yukon golds for the second batch - I've done Russets for the first. I'll let you know how they turn out. I'm frying them twice, for the colour aspect. Thank you guys.

This affects what happens if the fries are left for a while. Oil will let the fries get limp. Lard or crisco will not. (Just think about the state of the oil/lard at room temperature.)

So if you use oil, make sure the fries go straight from the kitchen to the table.

You need to clear your browser's cache.

Mad cook that I am, I'm a fool in the kitchen, or at least clumsy, and am afraid of fire on top of it. I'm interested in how brave folk would cook the best fries so will follow the deep frying business (interesting about how the Belgians do them) but am going to try rexred's method myself, possibly even with olive oil. I had some totally great fries on the aventino in rome once, such great flavor, crisp outside, soft inside.. but of course I don't know how they did it.

I'm, as usual, ms. picky re fries. I hate them mealy and flavorless, hate them at, say, burger king, where they taste good for about fifteen seconds and then morph into terrible.

Tangenting, as is my way, I had the best roasted potatoes I've ever tried just about a week ago at Vivace. Crispy crusty on the outside, relatively soft on the inside, great flavor. Perfect. Have to go there again and beleague the waiter for how they do it.

Thanks for the tip about the lard, Drewdad... now, how do I clear the cache?

Depends on your browser. I'll see if I can find a link to the various methods.

Thank you. No, I won't salt them till after. And I am going to deep fry them.

Figured it out, thanks for the tip, DD.

Freezing them helps allows it to get crispy on the outside without overcooking the inside doesn't it?