Ultimate French Fries
-- what exactly are the ultimate french fries?
Certainly no one person can make that determination.
However, when dealing with something as vague as "taste" it is certainly expected there will be huge variations in opinion.
This is just my idea of what the perfect french fry should be.
Perfect French fries should be:
• Light golden brown in color.
• Crunchy on the outside.
• Inside a nice fluffy texture with a clean potato flavor.
• The perfect fry shouldn't look or feel greasy.
• Salt should correctly proportioned and add to generally accepted finger and mouth feel.
• Perhaps most importantly great fries should remain somewhat stiff and should break in half when bent, never limp and soggy.
My ideal french fry is the McDonald's french fry of the 1960's era and up until the invent of the pre-processed frozen fry.
Ray Kroc the founder of McDonald's made the statement that for McDonald's the french fry was sacrosanct, "its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously.".
During the McDonald's early years french fries were made from scratch every day. Russet Burbank potatoes were peeled, cut into shoestrings, and fried in each McDonald's franchise.
As the chain expanded nationwide, in the late-1960s, it sought to cut labor costs, reduce the number of suppliers, and ensure that its fries tasted the same at every restaurant. McDonald's began switching to frozen french fries in 1966 -- the era of the ultimate french fry was over.
The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the frying media.
For decades McDonald's cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries a unique flavor, however that particular flavor has virtually disappeared forever.
I can vividly remember the taste of those fries, but for you who were not even alive in that era it's impossible to describe.
It's like the first beef strip loin I dry aged, as the time approached to actually eat a dry aged steak I realized I had no idea of the taste to expect, but once I had, it was a taste in life that should have never been missed.
So what is the "secret" to the ultimate french fry?
There are websites out there that get so deep into the science that those without a culinary PhD gets lost in the scientific chaos.
Here are the simple basic steps:
• 1 Select the highest solids (lowest water content) potato you can possibly find.
That potato will normally be an Idaho Russet(why Idaho? The perfect growing environment and expert potato growers).
Look for Russet Burbank, however your choice in the supermarket is going to be limited.
• 2 Condition the potato at room temperature (try to find a cool spot) for 2-3 weeks in case the potatoes just came out of cold storage, this will give time to convert sugars to convert back to starch.
• 3 Peel and cut your fries.
• 4 Place the fries in 170°F water for 15 minutes.
Don't let the water get below 170°F, a few degrees above won't hurt, but getting too high too long may overcook the fries. Getting the fry completely heated through to 170 is CRITICAL in achieving the perfect fry.
I cut 9/32'' fries the immersion time is perfect, however thicker fries may require a longer time to heat through completely, you may need to tweak the immersion time.
• 5 Dry the fry strips.
Blot with towels and air dry on a wire rack or place in a lightly warm oven until dry - a convection oven with the door open works great or force dry with a blow dryer. The drier the fry strips are going into the fry media the better.
• 6 Immerse in 370°F oil for 65 seconds.
Remove shake off excess oil and let cool.
