French fries

A potato is peeled, cut into planks, the planks cut into sticks, the sticks cooked in either water or in oil, then cooled to at least room temperature. At this point, the potatoes can be frozen and reserved until the next geologic age, or possibly a month or two. Finally, the cooled potato sticks are fried in hot oil, the so-called dehydration fry, to impart crispiness to the outside surface while maintaining a soft and fluffy interior. If the cook decides to fry the potatoes all at once, then too bad, limp soggy French fries for you! 

Fresh out of the hot oil, the fries are salted and otherwise seasoned to one's own preference.

French fries

The temperature of heated oil falls dramatically when a handful of cooled potatoes is dropped into it, so the oil is heated to excess of target cooking temperature in anticipation of decline.  The oil is heated to 360℉/182℃,  ten degrees above the target cooking temperature of 350℉/177℃.  If the oil temperature drops too much then the potatoes will absorb oil, we do not want that. We want the potatoes to repel the oil throughout the cooking process and that is done by keeping the oil hot. The cook must avoid the temptation of overloading the oil. A pot larger than necessary to boil potatoes in water is used to deep fry potatoes in oil because the fierce piling up of oil bubbles presents an unacceptable risk of overflow onto the flame or hot stove element. The same danger is present with cookers designed specifically for deep-frying. Always fill the pot with oil only half way, or even less is better, but less oil means increased temperature drop so fry in batches if necessary. For their own safety, get the kids out of the kitchen.

So, there ya go ↑, a 55° drop in Fahrenheit terms with just one potato. Maybe I should have started at an even higher temperature.

With the stove kept on high, the temperature quickly comes back up ↓ to 350℉/177℃, but I would have preferred it not drop as much as it did.

Look at 'em there ↓ so hot, exhausted from their workout, vulnerable to the application of salt, garlic powder, any number of curry powders, the full range of other spices, even finely grated hard cheese if I cared to.

french fries

Cooked in lard. That's right, I said it, lard. Per reader_iam's suggestion in the previous post, a combination of vegetable oil and lard. These are so filled with crispy goodness, the next time it'll be pure lard for supreme crispy goodness.

The bottom photo is four potatoes blanched in that vegetable oil / lard combination briefly until tender at 225˚F / 110˚C.

They were left to cool then deep-fried at 350˚F / 175˚C. Next time I'll let 'em go a little longer for extra extra supreme crispy. Mmmm, fluffy-tender inside, crispy outside, just like McDonald's used to be in the days of yore which preceded the days of the Fat Police.

3/4 of this batch is sealed in Seal-a-Meal™ air-suction device and frozen for later. Then, cooked in lard they'll really be filled with super-duper extreme tender-crispy goodness. That lard is really the way to go. I intend to filter it, put it in a jar, and use it again.

Oh! Almost forgot. A few drops of habanero sauce mixed with the catsup for extra intrigue.

french fries

These fries were blanched in boiling water for a mere minute, spun as a salad, dried and then fried. It was a test to see if something I saw on TV would work. The cook said blanching them in water arrests an enzyme (that goofs on the potato later) without over doing it on the precooking stage. Of course that can be done in either boiling water or in oil at a lower temperature. These fries were limp and lifeless. Not fluffy inside and not crunchy outside. So the worst of both undesirable french fry characteristics. Next time I'll boil them longer until more tender before giving up on the water pre-cooking method.

chicken breast, mustard greens and spinach

Spinach and mustard greens

* bacon

* red onion

* garlic

* mustard greens trimmed

* spinach, rinsed and trimmed

* brown sugar

* rice vinegar

* S/P

* pecans heated in microwave

Chicken dusted, drenched in beaten egg, dredged in Panko. Potatoes were cut and prepared earlier and frozen. They were cooked with the the chicken breast in the same oil at 350℉.

butternut squash French fries

French fries prepared the traditional way, deep fried in two sessions, first at a lower temperature to cook the potato, here the gourd, and second, after allowing to cool, deep-fried again at higher temperature to dehydrate and crisp.

First at 225℉ - 250℉, and second at 350℉ or thereabout.

Conclusion: These are the best fries I have ever tasted. They were not crisp as I had hoped. I believe the temperature was too low for the second deep-frying session. I'm not giving up, though, there's still hope for a crispy butternut fry. If not, then oh well, soft fries will just have to do. This is were a tempura type coating might come to the rescue but that has its own problems, namely, the crispiness doesn't last for long, or perhaps a cornmeal type coating and then baked.

They cooked faster than I had imagined. Faster than potatoes do. They appear to release a sugary liquid while cooling, I was counting on that to crisp and also afraid it would splatter but neither of those two things happened, and so I'm left confounded as to why. I think I might try giving them a start by roasting on low temperature and cut them into fry shapes before they're entirely done, then finish roasting at high temperature with the help of a little spray, or possibly brushed with oil.

They're tricky to cut and there's a bit of waste because of the shape of the gourd and the hollowed out area were the seeds are cleared but they are totally worth the trouble.

seasoned french fries

* kosher salt
* pepper
* hot paprika
* garlic powder
* ground rosemary

* catsup +habanero sauce

Pommes frites

Assaisonné avec du sel et le romarin

et avec des trois sauces, ketsup, mayonnaises d'ail de gingembre, et moutardes en graines.

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French fries

Seasoned with salt and Rosemary

and with three sauces, ketsup, garlic ginger mayonnaise, and stone-ground mustard.