this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2025
106 points (95.7% liked)
General Memes & Private Chuckle
366 readers
1056 users here now
Welcome to General Memes
Memes for the masses, chuckles for the chosen.
Rule 1: Be Civil, Not Cruel
We’re here for laughs, not fights.
- No harassment, dogpiling, or brigading
- No bigotry (transphobia, racism, sexism, etc.)
- Keep it light — argue in the comments, not with insults
Rule 2: No Forbidden Formats
Not every image deserves immortality on the memmlefield. That means:
- No spam or scams
- No porn or sexually explicit content
- No illegal content (seriously, don’t ruin the fun)
- NSFW memes must be properly tagged
If you see a post that breaks the rules, report it so the mods can take care of it.
Otherwise consider this your call to duty. Get posting or laughing. Up to you
founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Heat. And you have to soak the potatoes overnight in salty water and blanch them and let them cool and then cook them again at a higher temperature.
Basically this plus the type of potato you use makes a pretty big difference. In America the russet is common, in Britain something like Maris piper.
My cook is slightly different:
Brine them in 3-5% salt solution
Boil until very tender, like falling apart, chill for 30m
Fry at 275F until they have a crust but they’ll be very blond, chill for 30m - can store for a few days at this stage
Fry at 350F until desired color, season, serve
If you have a chamber vacuum you can speed this up significantly by pulling a vacuum a few times instead of chilling in between each step. Chilling is mainly to dry the exterior and the vacuum does the same thing. Gives a fry with fluffy interior and crisp exterior that maintains this texture even as heat drops (eg still somewhat decent even when cool but like any fry much better warm).
Alternatively boil the potatoes and rice them, then mix the resulting mash with corn starch (roughly 125g starch per kg mash). Roll the potato “dough” into a sheet desired fry thickness, cut into fries and dust with corn starch, and double fry again (375 for a few minutes to blanch, let oil recover and fries cool, 375 to brown). This is more akin to cheap frozen grocery store fries and Sysco fries you’d get at many restaurants. Potato selection doesn’t really matter with this
Roosters, 170C, lift them in and out, if the temp drops lift them out, when it's back up put them back in. Once they're pretty much cooked ramp the temp up to 190C to finish. Don't overdo.
Doesn't even need to be overnight.
I get the same results by blanching with baking soda, draining, then a short freeze.
blanching and then cooling? I'm trying that.
Apparently blanch then freeze (if you have the time) also extracts more water then just cooling to room temp does, as the forming ice crystals clump away from the potato mass that was trapping it.
Don’t throw frozen fries into hot oil, obviously
A lot of good home fries are double fried, too. Fry until cooked, let cool for a short time, fry until golden and crispy.
You can also do the pickle method, where you basically quick pickle/ferment the potato cuts overnight then fry them.
My memories are from a long ago kitchen where I dishpigged, we did the pickle method I guess. The cook explained it to me and I understood years later as I learned to cook.
I’ve never heard of this pickle method! Interesting.
Thanks for the tip!