French Fries – So Nice Because You Cook Them Twice
This how to make crisp restaurant-style French fries video recipe is probably more of any FYI – "oh, that's how they do it" demo, than an inspiration to actually try them.
I don't think most people realize that any decent French fry needs to be twice fried. The first frying in done at a lower temperature, which softens the potato and prepares the starchy surface for the second frying's crispification.
When done correctly, you get an amazing textual combination of light fluffy interior and thin crisp exterior. When you fry raw potatoes, even if the oil and temperature are perfect, there is really no way it will get and stay crisp just cooking it through in one shot.
I've been to so many restaurants that either don't know or don't care about this important fact. Why would they serve a limp fry when they could be making beautifully crisp fries? It remains one of the great foodservice mysteries.
Some people actually refer to these as "Belgium fries," since many food historians claim the technique was first developed there. If you research the history of French fries you will read many passionate arguments on the France vs. Belgium debate regarding this sinfully delicious side dishes' true origins.
I find these arguments amusing, not because there aren't legitimate cases for both sides, but because give or take a few bad movies and a couple museums, France and Belgium are like the same country. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
Russet or Kennebec Potatoes
vegetable oil or shortening for frying
salt
28 comments:
Those look awesome. If you are doing enough fries for more than one person, you would do you fry them in batches right? How do you recommend keeping the fries hot while the others are frying?
Any plans to do a ketchup recipe?
yes, batches are best so the oil doesnt cool. just keep an oven at 200 and they will stay fairly crisp.
Just poppin' in to give the expected tongue-lashing for throwing France and Belgium into the same Dutch oven. After all, "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam, qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt."
Curious if last month's issue of Gourmet spurred you to post this? I tried their recipe (sans deep fat thermometer) and botched the whole batch. It would seem that I am excessively reliant on Maestro Mitzewich's tutelage...
By the way, I tried your guidelines for the Chicken Roulade last night. What a spectacular way to do chicken! (Even if I did have to substitute in salami and a cheese stick.) Botched the pan sauce, though - still can't get the hang of it.
"pulled a cheek muscle" .... hehehe!
So THAT's how you do it! Of course they really should be served with the traditional malt vinegar and salt. Now if I only had a fryer.
Bravo le Chef Jonathan!
but I muzt say, you do not peel ze chips entirely? zat seems étrange to me!
Outzide of the USA (which iz a geographical oddity) no one refers to chips (or "fries") as being French. Even ze French know zat it iz ze Belgian speciality, sacrebleu!
I always attributed the "French" part of fried potatoes to a common, alternative way of saying Julian--well, to how common it is, i don't know.
To "french" a potato, way back in the day in some parts of the U.S., was to Julian a potato because the technique was associated with French cuisine. Somewhere down the line the public caught on to saying it.
so, a not so French fry it is.
Great video as always.
Thought you'd hear from the Belgium vs France crowd. But I'm surprised no one has written in from Flanders to complain about the comparison to France.
/never mind that Brussels is laid out like Paris, in imitation
//Brussels 2nd only to Paris in haute cuisine
///Belgians make far fewer bad movies than the French because they make far fewer movies
Hey Chef John! I tried out this recipe and it was great.
I'm thirteen years old with natural talent, and I will be a chef when I'm older, I was wondering If it's not too personal how much it costs for an entire tuition of a good school for culinary arts?
Minh, depends, some are 50,000. don't go to culinary school. work for a chef first.
And *why* wouldn't we do this? You words say "no" but your fries say, "immediately".
reverse psychology
How would the outcome of the fries be affected if for the first blanching step, you boiled them instead of fried? Would the (slightly) healthier fries be passable or is it just better to go for broke and double-fry?
PS: Thanks for posting informative vids as well as functional!
ive done that for fried potato wedges and it works well, but thinner fries may be harder to not overcook. thanks!
Thats funny I was planning on getting some steak um maybe ribeyes an making my own burgers tommorow an here you post a fries video lol,I made the chicken breast with herbs de provence an mushrooms and rice pilaf today it was awesome but on the down side found out my wife of 32 yrs doesn't really care for saffron,go figure,o an I made my son who is a vegan a pizza usualy he puts his leftovers in the fridge on a plate as is today he covered them in plastic :)o made a loaf of bread to have to wake up early so I get some for breakfast its almost gone lol,Thx John I turning into a cooking fool but it sure tastes good.:)o an it probably didn't even take an hour to make all that just putzing around except for the dough that was 10 minutes in morning to start in the morning an one nead later.oops an the chicken that marinaded for over a day :)Theres nothing like pulling pizza dough an looking over an giving a pan of mushrooms a shake an a smell to see how their doing.
Your fries looks awesome. I've tried blanching them before and still they remain crunchy for only like 5 minutes before going limp when cooked. Some recipe i've found before suggested microwaving the potatoes frying to cook them instead of blanching. What are your takes on that?
Ribeye burgers? Are those things legal?:) Will put these fries on the bucket list, Chef John. Have to work in some animal fat into the cooking oil to keep all the vegetarians away from em.
Hi John,
Being from a town 1 mile from the Belgian border I thought I could say a few things about "French fries"...
1: They're only called french fries in the US and in MacDonalds restaurants. In Belgium and France they're called "Frites"
2: They're Belgian, that is: you can find them in Belgium, not as much in France.
3: The French tend to cut their fries smaller and thinner, calling them "allumettes" or matchsticks. Belgians cut them 10 - 13mm thick.
4: Belgium is the "Friture" or fries-joint/snackbar capital of the world; you will find a place that sells "frites" on almost every corner.
5: The number one condiment for fries is (pulp fiction wasn't wrong): mayonaise! Belgian snackbars have a huge selection of things to put ON fries!
6: My mom (who makes the best fries ever) leaves the fries to rest in a closed towel after the first frying, which makes them extra fluffy on the inside.
and lastly a tip:
try a bit of mayonaise with a squeeze of lemon with your fries. Divine.
Greetings from Maastricht,
Väös
Yeps ribeye burgers are legal,i read a story about henry ford II he loved burgers but complained that nobody but his chef could make them right so one day lee iaccoca asked the chef how he made them he took out a ribeye ran it through a grinder made a patty an threw it on the grill lol
P.S. I got two beautys at the farmers market this morning can't wait till dinner time :)
Ribeye burgers? Are those things legal?:) Will put these fries on the bucket list, Chef John. Have to work in some animal fat into the cooking oil to keep all the vegetarians away from em.
Belgium and France are not the same country!!! Hahaha you will hear from them! French say silly mean things like Belgians are slow and the Flemish part of Belgium even looks down upon their French speaking countrymen. Oh Lord, blasphemous speaketh thou.
Your last paragraph made me smile,funny:)
Thanks for revealing the mystery that is a crispy fry. I've tried everything: freezing cut potatoes and then frying them, boiling cut potatoes and frying, and even your method of frying them twice (but my temperature was way too high on the first fry)...thanks for making this look so easy...lol
this is just great! I love this recipe, I never knew exactly how to crisp it well. I must confess that there are 2 chefs that changed my way of cooking: that's you and Jamie Oliver from UK. Thanks and good cooking.
Vlaamse fritjes! There is no such culture in France. In Belgium you have fritkots in all towns where you can get some delicious fries (getting the second frying when you order it if there is not too much people, otherwise they just keep coming out fresh) and eat them while you walk around.
In France there is no yummy savory snack foods to take away like that. Maybe you can get fries to take aaway in places where they sell kebabs or greek sandwiches, but they are nowhere as good as the Belgian ones. French men are happy to use as side dish in their restaurants frozen fries and sometimes they get dead cold to your dish....
Flemish fries FTW! (lived in Belgium for some years and now I'm in France. God, I miss the fries!)
I almost gave up on you, Chef. You've not done demos on any of my requests...until now! Thanks! Though I'm quite sure you gotten loads of french fry demo requests along with mine.
I tried your instructions with fantastic results! They were the best fries I had ever made. Thank you! The cooling down after the first blanch frying was key!
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