Easy Baked French Fries

Easy Baked French Fries

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[starttext] French fries

French fries (American English), chips, or fries are deep-fried strips of potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes (especially from fast-food outlets) are often called fries to distinguish them from chips (which are traditionally fatter and less elongated). French fries are known as frites, patates frites or pommes frites in French, a name which is also used in many non-French-speaking areas, while others may have names that mean "fried potatoes" or "French potatoes". "Steak-frites" is widely considered the most typical French national meal, as are a "burger and fries" in America, and frites on their own are a Belgian culinary specialty.

Etymology

Thomas Jefferson had "potatoes served in the French manner" at a White House dinner in 1802. The expression "French Fried Potatoes" first occurs in print in English in the 1856 work Cookery for Maids of All Work by E. Warren: "French Fried Potatoes. – Cut new potatoes in thin slices, put them in boiling fat, and a little salt; fry both sides of a light golden brown colour; drain." In the early 20th century, the term "French fried" was being used in the sense of "deep-fried", for other foods such as onion rings or chicken. It is unlikely that 'French fried' refers to 'frenching' in the sense of "julienning", which is not attested until after 'French fried potatoes'; previously, Frenching referred only to trimming the meat off the shanks of chops.

Variants

There are variants of French fries, including "thick-cut fries", "steak fries", "shoestring fries", "jojos", "crinkle fries", "curly fries", "hand-cut fries" and "tornado fries". Fries cut thickly with the skin left on are called potato wedges, and fries without the potato skin are called "steak fries", essentially the American equivalent of the British "chip". They can also be coated with breading, spices, or other ingredients, which include garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, and salt to create "seasoned fries", cheese to create "cheese fries", or chili to create "chili fries". Sometimes, French fries are cooked in the oven as a final step in the preparation (having been coated with oil during preparation at the factory): these are often sold frozen and are called "oven fries" or "oven chips". Some restaurants and groceries in North America offer French fries made from sweet potatoes instead of traditional white potatoes

In France, the thick-cut fries are called "Pommes Pont-Neuf" or simply "pommes frites", about 10 mm; thinner variants are "pommes allumettes" (matchstick potatoes), ±7 mm, and "pommes pailles" (potato straws), 3–4 mm (roughly ⅜, ¼ and ⅛ inch respectively). The two-bath technique is standard (Bocuse). "Pommes gaufrettes" or "waffle fries" are not typical French fried potatoes, but actually crisps obtained by quarter turning the potato before each next slide over a grater and deep-frying just once

In an interview, Burger King president Donald Smith said that his chain's fries are sprayed with a sugar solution shortly before being packaged and shipped to individual outlets. The sugar caramelizes in the cooking fat, producing the golden color customers expect. Smith believes that McDonald's also sugar-coats its fries. McDonald's was assumed to fry their fries for a total time of about 15 to 20 minutes, and with fries fried at least twice. The fries appear to contain beef tallow, or shortening.

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