French-fried Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut raw potatoes into half‑inch slices, then into half‑inch strips.
Soak the potato strips in cold water for 1 hour.
Dry the potato strips thoroughly.
Fry and serve
Fry the potatoes in smoking hot fat until golden brown.
Season with coarse sea salt before serving.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Raw potatoes
- Starch and water inside the strips cook into a fluffy interior while the outside crisps.
- Fat for frying
- Conducts heat quickly into the potato, driving browning and crisping on the surface.
The step that matters
Dry the potato strips thoroughly. Surface water cools the hot fat and turns to steam, which makes fries soggy and greasy instead of crisp. Removing it lets the surface brown and crisp properly once fried.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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