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I have purchased a industrial sized french fry cutter....now what? From everything I see if you just throw them in the fryer, you get soggy/oily fries. I have been told to soak them in cold water before frying to prevent them from browning prematurely. Any help is appreciated.
I remember mom doing that.Haven't had homemade fries in a long time.
It may or may not work but I think I read that if you boil them a little first then fry them they will come out good. I guess if they are already cooked in the center then just fry to brown.
What kind of oil are you using?
Many many many moons ago... about 6 years haha... I used to work at McDonalds and Wendys..... we only used Vegetable oil for the chicken and fish...
Okay. I know this one. Saw it on America's Test Kitchen just the other day. It was part of a Fish and Chips recipe.
Multistep process but it looked really good.
Good luck.
You've got to fry em twice. Use peanut oil. You can strain and reuse it, too.
I cheat and buy the Ore-Ida extra crispy crinkle cuts and just bake them in the oven..........:D ...........You don't have alot of fat content when baking like you get from oils............on a healthy side that is.......;)
Thanks
cut them smaller--the bigger the fry the harder it is to get it crispy----drop em in a 400 and use peanut oil-----
Try this... take what you cut, put in a bowl and mix them with some olive oil, then spread on a bakeing sheet and sprinkle garlic salt and peprika.. bake at 400 for 20 minutes or so.
Yes fry them say 1 minute or so. then pick the basket up. Let them drain. And in a few minutes drop them back down. and they turn out great. Used to do this years ago when I cooked in restaurants. Like 30 years ago.
Pete
My wife always seems to get them crispy. If you can get past the burned taste, I guess they are pretty good. ;)
The quick way to crisp up home made fries is: 1. After they are cut up and washed place the fries in a bowl. 2. Mix 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup shore lunch (or your choice of a batter) together in a differant bowl. You can use just seasoned flour too 3. Lightly dust/sprinkle and coat the cut fries with the flour mixture. You just want to coat the fries. It doest take a lot. 4. Place the fries in a deep fryer untill golden brown. There you have it very crispy fries and seasoned too. Try it.
I'll throw my .02 in. After the tators are peeled and cut, try soaking them in water for thirty minutes or so. My belief is that it is the starch in potatos that causes them to be soggy. Soaking them in the water allows the starch to escape. This works fine around my house. We hardly ever use store bought fries and ours are crispy everytime. Good luck.
Something similar........get the olive oil on them, and use Lowerys Seasoning Salt......simple, but fine....Quote:
Originally Posted by REDBOAT
Also, using Russet Potatoes, if available, makes a difference when frying french fries.......Supposedly, that's what McDonalds uses, and for fast food, I like their fries best.
And jstlovtofish, I've read that before about soaking before cooking.......but, never tried it.
the reason the fries are soggy is the starch content. there are no shortcuts to this so dont try. lol.
cut the potatos and put in the sink. fill sink with semi hot water. wash around with your hands. drain
at this point there should be white stuff on the sides of the sink. this is starch. wash it away. refill
sink with warm water and wash again. drain. refill sink with cold water and put a good amount of ice and left
them sit in ice cold water for at least 2 hours.preheat fryer to 300 degrees. take potatos directly from water
and let excess water drain. put in fryer for 4 minutes. this is blanching the potatos. take out after 4 minutes and
lay them out on a cookie sheet. let them cool all the way down in the frig. these are good for a couple of days from
this point. to serve. cook blanched fries in fryer at 375 degrees for 5 minutes. these are the perfect fries after you salt them
the trick is to get the starch out so you can cook the potatos longer without them turning brown! alot of labor, but great product!
To get fresh and crispy fries try this.Quote:
Originally Posted by UTFAN
-Wash spuds(taters) and cut up.
-Rinse in fresh water repeatedly , until you get most of the excess starch out.
- Par-fry (half cook)all your potatoes, Place in a big bowl with paper in bottom to soak up oil and moisture, you can hold the fries several hours liek this.
-fry them up till golden brown and your fries will get crisp and stay crispy!
I guess removing the excess moisture helps keep em crispy!
Good luck and don't eat more than u can lift!!
I cut mine into smaller slices. This may not be the shape that you're after. I cross cut smaller potatoes, and half the bigger ones lengthwise. Fry in veg. oil at 360 until brown. I can make "chips" like that without burning.
Between Shiloh Red and Allen they have nailed it...The key is frying twice! I would stick to Allen's recipe and you will nail it too!
Must be how Macky D does theres lol.....Hard to beat them fries.Quote:
Originally Posted by allen
Looks like you might be some Competition for them.I'll have to try your recipe.Sure sounds like the best way to do it.
IN ADDITION TO THESE GUYS INSTUCTIONS IT HELPS TO DRAIN THEM SPREAD OUT ON A WIRE RACK. THE MOISTURE FROM PAPER TOWELS OR OTHER FRIES CONDENSES MOISTURE MAKING THEM SOGGY.:cool:
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but pat dry them, dip em in eggwhites and then cook em in the oven. They will turn out nice and crispy just like you deep fried them.
I used Allen's suggestion last night for fries when we were making a fish dinner - potatoes came out great! Thanks for the detailed instructions...
well there is a couple things you can do to make them like what you get in the store. first you can cut your fries always keep them in water and a bit of an acid like lemon juice wine or anything with an acid so they don't brown. when you are ready to cook these things you bake them or boil them first that gets them half cooked. i like to boil mine then i put them out on let them dry off a bit. then you deep fry them this will keep them from being soggy. baking them first does the same thing. some people say fry them twice but they seem to be saturated then.
once again I am hitting an old post... here is how I always make my stake frys...I clean rinse and cut my tators.. then I spread them on a paper plate and nuke em for 3 min then strait to the fryer.. works every time...
This close but to get get good crispy they must be small and double fried. Cook them about 1/2 to 3/4 done bring them out let the internal mosture move out (about 15 to 20 minutes). Then drop back in the the frier till the crispest you like. Practice is the best teacher.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knappy
You have to blanch them and then fry them again
Back in the day when McDonalds had good fries, at least when they were hot, they cut the fries on site. The potatoes came in in 100# gunny sacks. We ran them through the peeler after cutting out bad spots, cut them and then washed the soluble starch out in cold water. That is the white stuff you see, when the raw cut fry was brittle enouh to snap in your fingers it went on to the precooker and then was hung against dropping fresh into hotter grease at rush hour; so the fries would always be hot when handed to the customer and finishing didn't take but a very short time. They were superb then but not so much when cold. Originally McDonalds used beef tallow for the deep frying. It may not be heart healthy, but then what deep fried foods really are anyway, but it is the best for taste and crispiness for deep fried foods.
One of the real keys no matter how you do it is to have the grease at the right temperature to sear the surface or you are almost guaranteed greasy deep fried foods, but not too hot to burn the surface before the insides cook. You want it just coming to start to smoke and then you don't overload it so that it cools too much. You don't cook deep fried foods done in the grease either, because like bacon they continue to cook a bit when they are taken out as they cool.
It pays to remember that McDonalds was a system that was supposed to turn out the same exact product everywhere. It is no big secret how they did it, but the procedures had to be followed everywhere the same; so it couldn't be all that mysterious in the first place.
McDonalds fries haven't been the same since they changed the oil and quit cutting them on the property, but back in those days, the franchises weren't allowed to hire women either, only young men. So those aren't the only things that have changed.
no1son hit it on the head, the reason McDonalds fries are always crispy is because they receive them in a precooked state, saw this on unwrapped on the food network one time, they precook them for 2 minutes then flash freeze them, thats why they are always crispy.
You cannot skip the step of washing out the soluble starch from the raw cuts and that works best on the smaller sizes and in the cold water bath already recommended by others. When properly done the cut fry will snap between your fingers and then it is ready for pre-cooking. You can bet that the frozen ones that McDonald's always gets from the approved suppliers which is all they are allowed to buy from do not skip this step. You can repeat this at home; years ago after I left McDonald's I demonstrated that to my skeptical mother right in her own kitchen. Now some 40 years later she still comments on it. This works best with bakers by the way.
The pre cooking part also helps produce the best hash browns and fried potatoes too. All you have to do is boil the spuds until almost but not quite done, refrigerate them until needed and then grate or slice them into the preheated pan. It has to be preheated or the potatoes will absorb the grease rather than cooking in it.
One of the other keys to crispy rather than soggy deep fried or pan fried foods to keep the heat of your grease up. Preheat it before adding anything and do not overload the grease, if you want crispy without grease-soggy interiors.
Another potato hint for those of you who do not want the potato chunks in your potato salad to disintegrate or be mushy is to use red potatoes and cook them to just barely done enough to change the starch but not soften them. Then cool them quick under running cold water. They will hold their shape and texture better in the salad. The fast cool of blanched vegetables will also give you much higher quality frozen outcome for those of you who preserve garden production in the freezer. Once cooled drain off the water, too.
Gotta love them spuds. I grew up with home grown potatoes in every meal, except occasionally breakfast. Just can't change that either. I still grow a few every year.
Most people already hit the nail on the head, but what you have to do is, after they are cut, rinse them well, untill the water that you are rinsing them in runs clear. After that you want to fry them at 325 for about 5 mins or so, just until they start to brown. Then let them cool (the longer and cooler, the better). Then finish them at 375 until you get the color you want. If you do that, they should stay crisp long after you cook them. If you try to do it too fast, they will be crisp as soon as you pull them out of the fryer, but will become soggy quick.
edit: Oh, and you want to use russets (or baking) potatoes by the way. The starch content in yukons, reds, etc.. are too high.
Don't over crowd the fryer and twice cooked is always better
Wow, what good information about potatoes, I'm taking notes lol.
This is what i always and they turn out. after you cut your fries put them in a cold bowl of water to get the starch out. the starch is what makes them soggy and limp. and fry em in 350 to 375 degree oil until theyre golden brown. i just use veggie oil.