Homemade French Fries - Tasty and EASY!

How to make delicious deep-fried french fries easily and quickly.

edit: Thanks for featuring my Instructable, Instructables! Read the comments for some helpful tips on frying, what oils to use, and some alternate methods of cooking. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Step 1: Collect your materials

To make these fries you will need:

- Canola Oil (Olive Oil and Vegetable Oil also work)
- Potatoes
- Deep-dish pan

Comments

[MsJaxFla]

Sorry, but I don't agree with your recipe.

First of all, you never, never want to fry anything with Olive Oil.... and second, I just can not abide the taste of Canola..... vegetable is sort of okay, but to take the high temperature that frying involves, you need to use Peanut Oil.

Yes, double fry them always and soak them in ice water first and dry them....... then the moderate temp first frying, drain and then the high temperature with the second fry......... then put them on absorbent paper and salt and season the fries. I use newspaper with just one paper towel on top to drain mine.

(I live in Florida, so all water needs ice here..... seriously).

[MsJaxFla]

I feel rather awful to have been so discouraging to you. Just that I have a bit of experience and all after years of trial and error.

Keep up the great work and please forgive me for sounding so negative, I did not mean to do that to you.

Also, pork fat is very tasty if you can render the fat yourself, not anything hydrogenated..... like the stuff you buy in the grocery stores. Icky pooh! I like Coconut oil as well, if it is not hydrogenated. (Might be labeled organic?).

I admire anyone that has the gumption to post and let us critique you... again, keep posting!

[TheBlackViper]

Don't sweat it, JaxFla. I added a note to the instructable to check your comments. I'm glad to hear your two cents; all recipes can be improved on! I hope readers can benefit from your tips. Thanks!

[Sasquatcher]

I also disagree with just about the entire recipe excluding the potatoes. I have a really hard time frying anything in vegetable oil. Oven baked go for the olive oil, but in a fryer you should always use animal fat. Far healthier and much tastier. Organic beef tallow should be the first choice, has extremely high flash point of 400+ degrees and it is really good for you, full of omega 3. Duck fat would be my second choice, although its flash point is around 375, kinda where you need to be for the second fry.
One hundred years ago, liquid vegetable oil was not invented yet. People cooked with lard, tallow, and butter. Cancer and heart attacks were also unknown.

[fozzy13]

I've wanted to make fries at home for a long time, thanks for posting : )..

I am going to point out a minor grammar error because I'm a jerk.. In your second to last sentence, it reads: "Tongs work good.." when it should actually read: "Tongs work well"..

Sorry, I just had to... Nice Instructable : )

[rluster]

ya "Tongs work well" is much gooder...
Sorry, I just had to...

[putipa]

well thats good fozzy

[TheBlackViper]

I would have done the same! I believe the periods at the end of your second paragraph belong inside the quotation marks, instead of outside. Thanks for commenting and enjoy!

[dataphool]

May I suggest; potatoes in the fall and early winter, have a very thin skin which does not need to be peeled. By peeling the potatoes you are throwing away a significant source of Vitamin C, and wasting time. I commend you on the favorite way to cook potatoes throughout most of the world.

[TheBlackViper]

Agreed! The skins are a delicious touch. Sometimes I will only partially peel the potatoes so that they have a good balance of skin to no skin.

[Dumchicken]

what about peanut oil?

[BackInBlack60]

This thread was VERY helpful. I'd not made fries in years, so I just chopped up a potato & threw it in hot oil. Turned out OK, but a tad soggy, so that brought me here. First, gotta go with MsJaxFla & others. Never fry in olive oil, and canola oil is gross. Being from the south, we use peanut oil (or lard) for frying everything we get our hands on (including whole turkeys). It takes the heat without breaking down, and tastes good too.

Thanks to all for the "double-fry" or "blanch fry" reminder, and also the soaking in cold or ice water (one person even said to par-boil) to get rid of excess starch.

@Grimling & others regarding McDonald's fries - actually they ARE double-fried; most fast-food places get them frozen & blanch-fried (with all variety of tasty, healthy & wonderful chemical additives, yum) and what they do is actually the quick second frying from frozen state. They are crispy & tasty, just not healthy at all. I think I read that even Wendy's new 'natural' ones come prepared like this and frozen.

OK, off to incorporate some of these ideas & hope for better fries! Wish I had a deep fryer, but a nice cast iron skillet is doing the job for me for now.
~J

[metallikunt]

It's also a lot easier if you have a pan with a basket, you can sit the fries in the basket and then take them all out with ease.

Other than that, this is how I do them too. They're always good with a bit of salt and vinegar after they're cooked :D

[superMacaroni]

I remember making something like this in the oven.

[anres321]

hey I am from Belgium, and we fry them 2 times In a deep fryer

[lanceearlhaines]

If you are really patient you can double blanch. First in boiling water to remove excess starches. Then dry them well. Proceed then with the double fry or blanch fry method at moderate then high heat. Of course the oil or lard you use will determine correct cooking temperatures. Saturated fat like horse or beef or pork lard are more stable at high temperatures and do not spontaneous convert to trans fats like poly and mono-unsaturated fat does. vegetable oils are only healthiest if not cooked at high temperatures. However they still contain no cholesterol, whereas animal fat does. McDonalds uses chemically altered vegetable oil to fry! aka partialy hydrogenated oil which also creates trans fats and saturated fats at the same time. A double whammy of unhealthy fat. They do this because the oil keeps longer day in and day out for many batches, and partialy hydrogenated veg oil is cheaper than animal fat and cheaper than going through large quantities of regular vegetable oil. I'd rather eat fries fried in lard than eat Mcdonalds fries, healthier too even with the cholesterol. Eating Trans fats is like slowly poisoning your heart and arteries. At least with saturated fat and cholesterol your body chemisty can process it, moderation and exercise are needed but with trans fat nothing helps. If I eat fires I don't make they will be from in and out burger. Pure vegetable oil and only fresh cut potatoes. The amount of trans fat spontaneously made in frying is probably small enough to accept as less unhealthy than using saturated animal fat with cholesterol. anyways I'm not sure that is just an educated guess. Either way eating fried foods is not healthy to begin with. So why does it have to taste so good? damn.

[vandal1138]

If you boil them in water until they are half done, dry them completely, and then fry them they will cook faster, the inside will be nice and moist, and the outside will be turbo crispy!

[rythmicbi]

Rinse the cut potatoes in cold water and chill in water for 1 hour. Fry the potatoes for 2-3 minutes at 220 degrees. Remove and drain off the oil on paper towel or brown paper bags work well....... to finish the fry's, cook in oil at 350 degrees until golden brown. Remove the fry's and drain oil, cuz it burns..... Season with what ever you like and EAT.

[geodez]

are you sure about EAT?

[fultron89]

Canola oil, hmm? *idunnoabouthat*

[Kewlstar]

Don't ever fry anything, or cook anything, in canola oil...it smells like you're frying fish.

[1337sh33p]

we soak our fries in water before double frying them and it seems to help. Supposed to get the starches out of the potato or something...

[PKTraceur]

Is'nt the name self-explanatory? FRIes?

[joey2542667]

a better thing to do would be to fry it like you said, but then drain the oils on the fries and fry them another 2-3 minutes

[nightninja87]

i watched alton brown do this before i suggest oil blanching them at around 300 then turn to 350 then frying

[phildavi]

I do it all the time.In India we like then spicy/pungent,so before frying them for the second time sprinkle with chilly powder and salt.It may not suit European taste but Hispanics may love it!

[selaja]

i wouldn't put it on before you fry it the second time, because it all comes off and burns to the bottom of the pan.

[selaja]

Also, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT once you cut the potatoes up, put them in between paper towels and take the water out!!! If you don't, once you put it in the oil, the water in the potatoes will pretty much explode!!

[selaja]

actually, it doesn't really matter

[selaja]

i am currently in possession of a deep fryer (hee-hee), so I will try to do it in a deep fryer, I will keep you posted.

[selaja]

it worked very well, i found that when you out them in the first time, it usually took about 5-7 minutes. They would look cooked, but not golden brown. The second time goes very quickly!!! they will get golden brown very fast! Once they do, take them out and put them on a paper towel to get the oil off. (yes you do want to get some of the oil off) you need to put the salt and what ever else on now, while they are still hot. don't put the salt on in between the two times that you will cook it because it all comes off and burns to the bottom of the pan/deep fryer.

[buttcheeks69]

(removed by author or community request)

[aleiraej]

buttcheeks69, you truly are a genious. The vegetable salt brought sensations to my mouth i didn't dare dream i could feel by eating food alone. The chili powder was a bit spicy, but the sweat that formed on my body was added lubrication while eating. Keep posting, Stueyy!

[bobalouie]

Patrik is right on the double frying...we came across this method in a 1938 Betty Crocker cookbook. They call it "blanching" the fries...it makes them SUPER! We simply put a batch in hot oil for 2-3 min.; they will start to float slightly and you can actually hear the frying sound change. When you do, take them out, drain them well on paper towels for about 10 minutes, put them back in and remove when they reach the darkness you like. You will never want fries any other way again! Bobalouie

[Patrik]

For best results, you should fry them twice. First in a medium hot hoil (320-350 F), take out and let them rest for at least 1/2 hour, then in hot oil (375-380 F) until done. This makes for a better balance of crispiness on the outside, and fluffy potato on the inside. Plus it make sit much easier to prepare a large batch for multiple people, because you can do the first round well in advance.

For authentic Belgian fries (they're Belgian - not French - trust me...), you should really cook them in beef fat. Then again, they would probably taste even better if you fried them in pure cholesterol. :-P

[canida]

I thought horse fat was the canonical frying source for proper pommes frites. (At least so says Alton Brown, as well as some Belgians of my acquaintance.)

[Patrik]

I honestly don't remember whether it was horse or beef fat we used to use. I do remember it would congeal to a solid mass when cold, quite a bit harder than pork lard. One advantage of the higher melting temperature is that the fries will taste a lot greasy/oily. I assume horse fat is getting hard to find these days. You can find horse meat fairly easily in most European countries, but it's not nearly as common as beef. Plus horses are a lot leaner than beef to begin with.

[TheBlackViper]

Interesting. I never thought frying them twice would make a difference. Thanks for the advice!

[Grimling]

Jup , as a Belgian , i can tell that Patrik is telling the truth , that's the only way to make 'french' fries ( THEY ARE FROM BELGIUM ! ) . And if you don't have a friteuse ( all belgians have duh :p ) . It's better to use a wok . It gets much hotter . Find yourself a huge spoon with holes ( so you can scoop them out and let the oil in ) But no matter what , always, ALWAYS fry them twice . That's why mcdonalds fries just suck , they are to impatient to do it twice ...

[ac7ss]

They are called "French Fries" because they are "French cut" potatoes. One could say that they were invented in Greece. (or grease.)

[ac1D]

im fench.. mcdonald aint impatient, its just that they dont have the time. go work at mcdonald before saying this. dont think its that easy. thanks.

[Dorkfish92]

i make homemade fries a lot too. I put Everglades seasoning on them. (REALLY good)

[bumsugger]

So what else is new.........................yawn???

[!Andrew_Modder!]

persionaly i dont like home made fries because their to to greasy and bland :-(. So if i made them i would Bam them lol, so i would mabe try seasoning them, and also "double frying, witch in double frying you get a more crisp and tasty fry :-) Heres how to do it, cook the fries normal (medium temp), then let them cool (and dry them off..), then put them back in the fryer on a REALLY high temp ( as high as you can go without spattering sh1t everywhere (375-400 good temp) and cook them for a couple of min, or untill there just starting 2 brown :--D mmm...

[GorillazMiko]

i do this all the time, theyre really good