French Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the potatoes lengthwise.
Wipe the slices dry.
Fry and serve
Drop the slices into boiling lard.
Serve very hot.
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
- Potatoes
- Starchy flesh that turns tender inside while the outside crisps and browns.
- Lard
- Hot fat that conducts heat quickly, frying the potato surface crisp and adding rich flavour.
The step that matters
Wipe the slices dry. Surface water turns to steam in hot fat, which makes the lard splatter and cools it down. Dry slices let the fat stay hot so the potatoes fry and crisp rather than steam and turn soggy.
“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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