That Perfect French Fry!

One of my food weaknesses in life are French fries! I work out, I watch what I eat now and I am trying to keep my weight and cholesterol down. It’s a struggle but it is also something most of us wrestle with, especially as we grow older.

So when I indulge in fries I try not to get the fast food kind, but go the frozen route, and bake them in the oven. But that’s no bargain either because the fries are laden with fat, salt and chemicals before they are frozen, so there is the dilemma.

This weekend I was watching America’s Test Kitchen and the subject of making good fries at home was on the program. If you want a detailed explanation of how they came up with the procedure I am about to describe you can go to their website for the information. What I am going to do is simply discuss my experience with making them the way they prescribe.

The suggestion is to start with cold peanut oil and Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced evenly into ¼ -inch sticks. Don’t bother peeling because this type of potato has a very thin skin. America’s Test Kitchen insists that the procedure does not work as well with other potato varieties. You are after a crunchy golden brown outside and a creamy interior.

Place the potatoes in a large frying pan and cover with cold peanut oil. Wait! Won’t the potatoes soak up all that oil? According to the testers, no they won’t. The amount of oil that is soaked into the potatoes is proportionate to the temperature. The higher the heat, the more water is driven out and replaced by the oil!

So bring the potatoes and oil to a rolling boil. When the oil first starts to vigorously boil, start a timer! Fifteen minutes maximum. And don’t stir them around, except to gently separate any that are stuck either to the side of the pan or together. You don’t want to break up the potatoes.

At fifteen minutes or when the potatoes have that golden brown color, remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon or spatula and place on paper towels to drain. Salt at this time to taste, and you are ready to dine!

I tried this method today and it worked great! I only used one medium potato so I didn’t quite need the entire 15 minutes they called for (I could visually see the browning that I wanted in the pan). The fries were crunchy, creamy and not at all greasy or soggy. The cool thing about it is that I wasn’t ingesting seven or eight chemicals that I can neither, pronounce, spell nor wish to eat, and I was able to control the salt content.

So what about deep fryers? We've never owned one because we don't fry foods all that often. The show tested six fryers during their research into making the perfect French fry and found that none of them gave very good results. Fries invariably turned out soggy and oily.

If you are on a strict diet, fries are problematic. But we are talking about occasional indulgences here and not a dietary staple. Try it for yourself and see!