French Fry recipies.

[hippywife]

Well, maybe not recipes, per se, but techniques. I have some greassfed black angus burger for the grill and want to make some really incredible french fries to go with them, either tonight or tomorrow.

Tell me your favorite method for achieving a nice crunchy, yet tender french fry. Please?

[Tab]

1. I have it somewhere

but can't find it. It might be on one of my other computers, or just buried somewhere on this one. Anyway, what I remember doing is:

- Use the right kind of potato. There's one that's particularly good, but I could never find it. Yukon Gold works pretty well, though. Don't use a regular Russet.

- French fries are made to be fried. Not baked.

- Use Peanut Oil, not Canola. Oils actually work better if they've been used a little bit first (because of the soaps in the oil - talking chemical soaps, not what you normally think of as soap). They break it down a bit, so it doesn't come out so bland the first time. The first batch in fresh oil won't be as good as the second or third, but I think you'll be okay even if you just do the first run.

- Slice the potatoes and soak them in water. Better yet - soak them in sugar water (I mean, with a decent amount (a lot) of sugar added). Soak them overnight or for as long as you can.

- The next trick is to double fry them. Pat them down first with paper towel so you get the excess water off. Then you first you fry them at a lower temperature - I believe 250 degrees. Remove and let cool - refrigerate if you're going to do them later. Then refry/finish them at, I think, 375 degrees.


I use sugar water because I always like the fries from Burger King, and they soak theirs in sugar water. One year, it occurred to me that you could use any kind of sugary water, so what I did for Thanksgiving was soak them in cider, and made my official "Cider Fries". I thought they were great. People have to know what to expect, though, as it's not an expected taste. You could, though, put in (along with sugar) cajun seasonings or something for spicy fries. Or try something else in your sugar water.

Enjoy!

[hippywife]

5. Well, all I have at the moment

are some small organic russets and that's what I'm planning on using. I will get them soaking pretty soon. And frying them twice. I have peanut oil, too.

I have read several recipes on the interwebs and was wondering about the successes folks have had with doing them. I've never made homemade fries and I don't think I will be doing them often but thought it would be fun to try. We stopped buying the frozen fries some time ago and don't eat out so if we're going to have them, I'm going to have to do it myself.

Thanx, Tab! :hi: :hug:

[yellerpup]

2. Best French Fries ever...

Toss them in duck fat and bake them at 400, turning once for about 25-45 minutes, depending on the depth of crunch you desire. I know it's not easy to just come up with a quarter cup of duck fat for today, but keep this in the back of your mind and you will be outrageously rewarded. I buy duck legs, bake them long and slow to render out the fat and save the fat for fries. Works with thick cut Idahos, fingerling potatoes, or red bliss equally whether you peel them or not. Orgasmic. I ain't kiddin.

[kestrel91316]

3. Sounds better than my oven fries tossed in canola oil or olive oil.

Duck fat - YUMMMMMM!! I sprinkle my oven fries with seasoned salt.

I don't deep fry anything. Too much hassle for ONE person, lol. And too much excuse to eat too much fat.

[Tab]

7. You might get away with that in the oven

but olive oil has a notoriously low smoke point.

You can improve it a little bit by not using extra-virgin olive oil.

Although if you're talking about tossing them AFTER cooking then it could be okay. But don't fry with olive oil - you'll set off your smoke detector.

[kestrel91316]

15. In retrospect I think I have used canola and not olive.

I saute in olive oil all the time, but I never deep fry ANYTHING. It's a PITA.

[yellerpup]

13. I love the olive oil oven fries, too, esp. sweet potatoes with rosemary.

I only cook with olive oil or canola oil or such animal fats that I render myself. I ALWAYS have olive oil on hand, but I can't say the same for duck fat or home made lard (I make that so my flour tortillas taste authentic.) Yours sound delicious, too!

[kestrel91316]

16. People think I'm crazy, but I have only used lard and not shortening for

MANY years.

Shortening and other trans fats are NOT FOOD.

[yellerpup]

17. I completely agree.

Too many people these days do not know the difference between food and food substitute. If people think you're crazy, then they've been watching too many tv commercials and taking them too seriously.

[kestrel91316]

19. When I read some of the newer books on the subject of food,

like "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, I feel somewhat vindicated.

I think I turned against trans fats before anybody called them that, back in the 70s after reading Adelle Davis' "Let's Eat Right To Keep Fit", I think.

OT: OMG I am watching some food show on PBS right now and the guy is stuffing squid tentacles cooked with onions into the squid heads, or whatever they call them. I think I'm gonna hurl. I don't DO suckers and tentacles.........

[hippywife]

22. Gads!

I'm so glad I don't have cable! :rofl:

[kestrel91316]

23. Yeah. Cramming the tentacles into the head. That's just

so WRONG.

I think the "chef" was Spanish or Portuguese or South American???

[yellerpup]

28. That's the same time I got interested in food as medicine.

I was in a wheelchair from arthritis and told I would not live to see 40. I turned 59 in March despite all the duck fat and lard. As for the tentacles, we hosted an Sardinian stone mason one summer who did not speak English and beyond polite greetings, I don't speak Italian, either. He showed me how to clean and cook octopus and make a simple, delicious octopus salad. Tentacled creatures MUST BE fresh. I surprised myself.

[Tab]

6. "Real" french fries come from Belgium

and I believe they're rendered in horse fat.

I haven't been to Belgium myself, so I couldn't say, but supposedly they're great. Of course, in this country no one would eat them knowing they were cooked in horse fat.

The duck fat idea sounds like it'd be really tasty, but it seems like you'd need a lot of it. Anyway, you're probably not going to find that much duck fat by tomorrow ;)

I think you're on the right track, though. There's a lot you can do with a fry.

Cardinal rule, though - don't cook them in the same fryer (if you have a deep fryer) where you do clams or chicken or whatever - they'll pick up those flavors. Fries need their own fryer.

[yellerpup]

14. Now, that I didn't know!

Horse fat! Have you tried it? Belgium is famous for their "French" fries, but I never would have guessed they used horse fat.

[BuddhaGirl]

33. duck fat ...mmmmmmm

I had french fries fried in duck fat once - absolutely the BEST fries I have ever tasted!!! :9

[yellerpup]

34. Really special.

If I'd known about them when I was younger I'd be quacking by now.

[flamin lib]

4. TAB has it right. Soak to remove some of the starch, and fry

twice.

The first fry is to cook the interior. I might raise the oil temp to at least 325 'cause the trick is to keep the outside of the tater hot enough that steam pushes out thus keeping oil from seeping in.

Fry just long enough to cook through--they'll be wimpy and floppy when you take them out.

They have to cool completely between fryings. The fridge isn't a bad idea.

Raise the oil temp to 375 or so and fry a second time. The outside will be crispy and the inside soft and creamy like mashed potatoes.

It's important to season them immediately and serve asap as the steam from within will begin to soften the crispy exterior. A really small slice will help keep them crisp as there is less "meat" inside to steam and they will cook faster. I like a 3/16 square (I love my mandolin). Most fries are 1/4 inch which works great if you can fry by the batch for individual servings.

If you have to keep them warm, set the oven at 275. That's hot enough to cook them to overdone if you try to warm them too long but it'll keep them crisp.

McDonald's is the standard by which all fries are mesured by the way . . .

edit to add:

I like peanut oil because of the high smoke point (somewhere over 400f). If you heat oil above the smoke point it burns and gets bitter. There is fairly common allergy to peanuts, so I always caution guests I don't know about my frying medium.

[hippywife]

10. Thanx, flamin lib!

Sounds like this is the preferred method from what I've been reading on the web, too. :hi:

[Tab]

8. Oh, one last thing - get yourself some basalmic vinegar

A properly cooked - and hot - fry is delicious when sprinked with salt and some basalmic vinegar. Sucks when the fries are cool, but a hot fry with a light sprinkling can be yum if you like the taste of basalmic.

[hippywife]

9. Have that, too!

I love fries with vinegar! I'm all out of malt vinegar, tho.

[Tab]

11. You're right, I'm wrong

It's malt vinegar. I guess I had a brain f*rt. Malt is what you want. That's the classic for fish 'n chips. I must have burnt that brain cell out (seems like they're dying like crazy now).

[hippywife]

12. I kinda wondered about that. LOL

Don't worry, I suffer from plenty of "old-hippie moments" myself. I have the potatoes cut, skin on, soaking in water (no sugar, tho) in the fridge now. Gotta go out and run an errand with the husband and will give this a shot when we get back.

Thanx for all your help, Tab. :hi:

[hippywife]

18. Done and eaten!

Big thick black angus burgers off the grill and drug through the garden with fresh homemade french fries! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

The fries turned out great! I didn't have any malt vinegar which is my preference so it was salt and pepper, Delmonte ketchup with a few dashes of Frank's Red Hot (coz I haven't seen Brooks Tangy Ketchup in decades!)

Ahhhhh...now that was a dinner! :9


Thanks to everyone for the input! :hug:

Oh, now what do I do with the oil? I don't have a deep fryer so I used my stainless sauce pot.

[flamin lib]

20. Let it cool, filter it if there are little crispy bits floating around-

there usually aren't with FFs- and store it in the fridge for other frying later.

I'm not into frying turkeys cause there's only two of us, but on occasion I will deep fry a whole Cornish game hen. Not often and I do it on the side burner of the grill (where I do all the frying to spare the house of aroma) and it's a unique flavor.

Hmmmm, I feel a game hen commin' on . . .

[hippywife]

21. Thank you so much!

I hated to think of what I was going to do with all that oil! LOL

Enjoy your game hen! :hi:

[Tab]

29. Sweet! Glad it worked! Ah, but what to do with the oil....

Always the bane of fry lovers.

If you don't have a lot, you could dump it down the drain, but that's not great if you have your own septic system (depending on where you live).

I would usually let mine cool to room temp, pour it back into the original container and hang onto it for next time. It's not great to put down your septic - once in a great while is okay, but not on a regular basis.

Let it be known, though, that used oil is actually valued. Aside from an alternative fuel source for your Yugo, as far as cooking is concerned, you do best with oil that is slightly used.

Totally fresh oil doesn't have the chemical soaps broken down, and can make for a bland fry product. It looks nice on a plate, but is flavorless.

Overused oil has basically been overused and you get a bad fry product (in terms of french fries, probably a limp one)

But oil in the middle, perfect.

One thing you can do, even if you decide to toss the bulk of the oil (I don't know how much you used) is to reserve a cup or two for next time. You can toss the rest, but if you can reserve a cup or two (or less - as I said, I don't know what you used) and mix it in with the next batch, you will actually have a better tasting product than if you used fresh oil each time out.

Damn, though, that sounds good. Even forgetting the vinegar (yes, malt, not my dope-slap basalmic (all I could think of that wasn't white or fancy flavored)), just fries with salt can be yummy all by themselves.

Interesting point: In Europe, or sections thereof, ketchup isn't the condiment of choice, mayo is. I personally don't like Heinz plastic ketchup - but it is an interesting switch. For fries, actually, just salt and malt vinegar is fine. Or just salt. But mayo is an interesting condiment.

Anyway, too bad you ate all the burgers. I was hoping you could FedEx some my way... but from the description, I doubt there was anything left.

Glad you enjoyed it!!!

[hippywife]

30. I did keep it.

We do live in a rural area and thus have a septic system so no discarding it that direction. Since there are only the two of us, I fried three small potatoes so I didn't use but probably three inches of oil, which turned out to be a mix of peanut and canola as I had less peanut oil than I thought.

I, too, prefer vinegar and salt. From the very first time I tasted vinegar on fries I was totally smitten with it. And we don't use very much ketchup at all. That was one of the things I wanted to experiment with making my own this year until our tomato plants were knocked out in a storm. Well, for as little of it as we eat, it probably wouldn't have been worth the effort, anyhow.

And there is one burger left in the fridge. We were going to share it for lunch today but come on over and it's yours. :D

[NMDemDist2]

24. hi, I like oven fries

I just make sure to get all the pieces a consistent size, heat the oven up hot (450) toss the slices in olive oil and the spices of your choice, stick it in a the hot oven and cook till done.

[hippywife]

25. I may try that next time

except I just saved my oil for future deep frying which I never have done before. Maybe I can try a vegetable tempura! Mmmmm! :9

Just getting home from work, darlin'?

[NMDemDist2]

26. home from work, dinner cooked, eaten and cleaned up and now

I'm off to bed to do it again LOL

:hi:

[hippywife]

27. Headed that way in a few myself.

The kitchen slave is done for the day. Sleep well. :hi:

[SwampG8r]

31. not french fries but damn delicious

this requies 2 pots of oil and the ability to control the temps closely

take one pot of oil and bring it to 325
the second pot of oil set at 400

slice your potato width wise so you make potato coins

about a half inch thick


submerge the slices in the 325 oil until they are cooked through and just beginning to take color
shake the basket while they are in the oil so the slices cook evenly

take the slices from the 325 oil and immediatly drop the slices into the 400 oil

the slices will become a deeper brown and will expand as the potato inside the crust completes cooking
the result is egg shaped cripy crusts flled with steamed potato
they can also be stuffed and used as a table vegetable

be warned
they look delicious when they come from the oil but the inside potato is like a mouthful of hot lava
rest these before eating

[hippywife]

32. Those sound really yummy!

And I'll just bet their hot as hell! LOL

Thanx! :hi: