Skip to main content
Main

French Fried Potatoes

French fried potatoes are thinly sliced potatoes fried until golden and salted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

French Fried Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into finger-length pieces, not too thick.

  2. Cover the cut potatoes with ice water and let them stand for two hours if they are old.

  3. Drain the potatoes and wipe them dry.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the potatoes in boiling fat, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.

  2. When they are a nice brown, lift them from the fat and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Shake off excess grease and remove with a skimming spoon.

  4. Drain on paper and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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
Starch provides the bulk of the interior, which turns soft and fluffy when fried.
Ice water
Soaking draws out surface starch so the fries crisp rather than stick together.
Boiling fat for frying
Hot fat cooks the potato quickly and drives off moisture, forming a crisp, browned exterior.

The step that matters

Fry in a pan that is not overcrowded. Adding too many potatoes drops the fat temperature, so the fries steam and absorb grease instead of browning and crisping.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes