Speaker 1: Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast or I Help
Speaker 1: You Drift Off one fact at a time. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Boster, and to day's episode is about French fries.
Speaker 1: French fries or simply fries, are also known as French
Speaker 1: fried potatoes, chips and finger chips, or batinet or Julien
Speaker 1: cut deep fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepared
Speaker 1: by cutting potatoes into even strips, drying them, and frying them,
Speaker 1: usually in a deep frar. Pre cut, blanched and frozen
Speaker 1: Russa potatoes are widely used and sometimes baked in a
Speaker 1: regular or convection oven, such as an air fryer. French
Speaker 1: fries are served hot, either soft or crispy, and are
Speaker 1: generally eaten as part of lunch or dinner, or by
Speaker 1: themselves as a snack, and they commonly appear on the
Speaker 1: menus of diners, fast food restaurants, pubs, and bars. They
Speaker 1: are typically salted and may be served with ketchup, vinegar, mayonnaise,
Speaker 1: tomato sauce, or other sauces. Fries can be topped more heavily,
Speaker 1: as in the dishes of bututine loaded fries or chili
Speaker 1: cheese fries and are occasionally made from sweet potatoes instead
Speaker 1: of potatoes. The standard method for cooking French fries is
Speaker 1: deep frying, which submerges in a hot fat, typically oil.
Speaker 1: The potatoes are prepared by first cutting them, peeled or
Speaker 1: unpeeled into even strips, which are then wiped off for
Speaker 1: soaked in cold water to remove the surface starch, and
Speaker 1: thoroughly dried. They may then be fried and one or
Speaker 1: two stages. Chefs generally agree that the two bath technique
Speaker 1: produces better results. Potatoes fresh out of the ground can
Speaker 1: have too high a water content, resulting in soggy fries,
Speaker 1: so preferences for those that have been stored for a while.
Speaker 1: In the two stage or two bath method, the first bath,
Speaker 1: sometimes called blanching, is in hot fat. To cook the
Speaker 1: fries through this step can be done in advance. Then
Speaker 1: they are more briefly fried and very hot fat to
Speaker 1: crispy exterior. They are then placed in a colander or
Speaker 1: on a cloth to drain, then served. The exact times
Speaker 1: of the baths depend on the size of the fries.
Speaker 1: For example, for two to three millimeters strips, the first
Speaker 1: bath takes about three minutes and the second bath takes
Speaker 1: only seconds. Since the nineteen sixties, most French fries in
Speaker 1: the U s have been produced from frozen Russa potatoes
Speaker 1: which have been blanched or at least air dried. Industrially,
Speaker 1: the usual fat for making French fries is vegetable oil.
Speaker 1: In the past, beef suet was recommended as superior, with
Speaker 1: vegetables shortening. As an alternative. Mac Donald's used a mixture
Speaker 1: of ninety three percent beef tallow and seven percent cottonseed
Speaker 1: oil until nineteen ninety when they change to vegetable oil
Speaker 1: with beef flavoring. French fries are fried in a two
Speaker 1: step process. The first time is to cook the starch
Speaker 1: throughout the entire cut at low heat, and a second
Speaker 1: time is to create the golden, crispy exterior of the
Speaker 1: fry at a high temperature. This is necessary because if
Speaker 1: the potato cuds are only fried once, the temperature would
Speaker 1: either be too hot causing only the exterior to be
Speaker 1: cooked and not the inside, or not hot enough, where
Speaker 1: the entire fry is cooked but its crispy exterior will
Speaker 1: not develop. Although the potato cuds may be banked or
Speaker 1: steamed as a preparation method, This section will only focus
Speaker 1: on French fries made using frying oil. During the initial
Speaker 1: frying process, approximately one hundred and fifty degrees celsius, water
Speaker 1: on the surface of the cuts evaporates off the surface
Speaker 1: and the water inside the cuts gets absorbed by the
Speaker 1: starch granules, causing them to swell and produce the fluffy
Speaker 1: interior of the fry. The starch granules are able to
Speaker 1: retain the water and expand due to gelatinization. The water
Speaker 1: and heat break the glycosidic linkages between amylopectin and amelose strands,
Speaker 1: allowing a new gel matrix to form via hydrogen bonds,
Speaker 1: which a in water retention. The moisture that gets trapped
Speaker 1: within the gel matrix is responsible for the fluffy interior
Speaker 1: of the fry. The gelatinized starch molecules move towards the
Speaker 1: surface of the fries, forming a thick layer of gelatinized starch,
Speaker 1: and this layer of pre gelatinised starch becomes the crisp exterior.
Speaker 1: After the potato cuts are fried for a second time,
Speaker 1: during the second frying process, approximately one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: degrees celsius, the remaining water on the surface of the
Speaker 1: cuts evaporates, and the gelatinized starch molecules that collected towards
Speaker 1: a potato surface are cooked again, forming the crisp exterior.
Speaker 1: The golden brown color of the fry will develop when
Speaker 1: the amino acids and glucose on the exterior participate in
Speaker 1: a milard browning reaction. In the United States and most
Speaker 1: of Canada, the term French fries or French fried potatoes,
Speaker 1: sometimes capitalized as capital F French fries or shortened to fries,
Speaker 1: refers to all dishes of fried elongated pieces of potatoes.
Speaker 1: Variants in shape and size may have names, such as
Speaker 1: curly fries, shoestring fries, etc. In Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Ireland,
Speaker 1: and New Zealand, the term chips is generally used, being
Speaker 1: a popular dish. In most Commonwealth countries, however, the term
Speaker 1: French fries, eyes or skinny fries is used for thinly
Speaker 1: cut fried potatoes, which are distinguished from the more traditional
Speaker 1: thick cut chips. In the US or Canada, these more
Speaker 1: thickly cut chips might be called steak fries depending on
Speaker 1: the shape, while the word chips is more commonly used
Speaker 1: in North America, to refer to potato chips, commonly known
Speaker 1: in the UK, Ireland, and South Africa as crisps. In
Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand, chips are often referred to as
Speaker 1: hot chips to distinguish them from potato chips, although the
Speaker 1: type of chip is often implied through context. Thomas Jefferson
Speaker 1: had potatoes served in the French manner at a white
Speaker 1: House dinner in eighteen o two. The expression French fried
Speaker 1: potatoes first occurred and printed in English in the eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty six work Cookery for Maids of All Work by
Speaker 1: Eliza Warren. French fried potatoes. Cut new potatoes in thin slices,
Speaker 1: put them in boiling fat and a little salt. Fry,
Speaker 1: both sides of a light golden brown color. Drain. This
Speaker 1: account referred to thin, shallow fried slices of potato. It
Speaker 1: is not clear where or when the now familiar deep
Speaker 1: fried battens or fingers of potato were first prepared. In
Speaker 1: the early twentieth century, the term French fried was being
Speaker 1: used in the sense of deep fried for foods like
Speaker 1: onion rings or chicken. The term was in use in
Speaker 1: the United States as early as eighteen eighty an eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine item in Good Housekeeping specifically references kitchen economy
Speaker 1: in France. The perfection of French fries is due chiefly
Speaker 1: to the fact that plenty of fat is used. One
Speaker 1: legend about the name French fries claims that when the
Speaker 1: American expeditiary forces arrived in Belgium during World War One,
Speaker 1: they assumed that chips were a French dish because French
Speaker 1: was spoken in the Belgian Army, but the name was
Speaker 1: used long before that in English, even in the U. S. Army,
Speaker 1: and the popularity of the term did not increase for
Speaker 1: decades after nineteen seventeen. The oldest documents where a fried
Speaker 1: potato is mentioned are from Chile in sixteen twenty nine
Speaker 1: in the city of Nacimiento, extracted from Happy Captivity, written
Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy three by Chilean Francisco Nunas de Pineda,
Speaker 1: where he narrates his experiences as a captive war soldier
Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty nine at the hands of the Mapoche warriors.
Speaker 1: In the text, he mentioned eating papas ritas bright potatoes
Speaker 1: in sixteen twenty nine and Mapoche women sent fried and
Speaker 1: stewed potatoes to the chiefs. The exact shape is unclear,
Speaker 1: likely wide slices or cubes fried in lamb or iguanaco tallo,
Speaker 1: which was customary. However, the cane shape originates from Europe.
Speaker 1: French fries in their current form may have been invented
Speaker 1: in Spain, the first European country in which the potato
Speaker 1: appeared from the New World colonies. Professor Paul Ilgams, curator
Speaker 1: of the Freed Museum in Bruges, Belgium, believes that Saint
Speaker 1: Teresa of Avila of Spain cook the first French fries,
Speaker 1: and refers also to the tradition of frye in Mediterranean
Speaker 1: cuisine as evidence. The Belgian food historian Pierre la Clerc
Speaker 1: has traced the history of the French fry and asserts
Speaker 1: that it is clear that fries are of French origin.
Speaker 1: It became an emblematic Parisian dish in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: Frederic Krieger, a Bavarian musician, learned to cook fries at
Speaker 1: a roaster en rue Montmontrey in Paris in eighteen forty
Speaker 1: two and took the recipe to Belgium in eighteen forty four,
Speaker 1: where he rated his business treats and sold Paris style
Speaker 1: fried potatoes. The modern style of fries, born in Paris
Speaker 1: around eighteen fifty five, is different from the domestic fried
Speaker 1: potato that existed in the eighteenth century. From the Belgian standpoint,
Speaker 1: the popularity of the term French fries is explained as
Speaker 1: French gastronomic hegemony into which the cuisine of Belgium was
Speaker 1: assimilated because of a lack of understanding, coupled with a
Speaker 1: shared language and geographic proximity of the countries. The Belgian
Speaker 1: journalist joe Gerrards claimed that as seventeen eighty one family
Speaker 1: manuscript recounts that potatoes were deep fried prior to sixteen
Speaker 1: eighty in the Meuse Valley as a substitute for frying
Speaker 1: fish when the rivers were frozen. Gerrards never produced the
Speaker 1: manuscript that supports his claim, and the historical value of
Speaker 1: his story is open to question. In any case, it
Speaker 1: is unrelated to the later history of the French fry,
Speaker 1: as the potato did not arrive in the region until
Speaker 1: around seventeen thirty five. Furthermore, given eighteenth century economic conditions,
Speaker 1: it is absolutely unthinkable that a peasant could have dedicated
Speaker 1: large quantities of fat for cooking potatoes. At most they
Speaker 1: were sauteed in a pan. In France and other French
Speaker 1: speaking countries, fried potatoes are formerly pommes de terre frite,
Speaker 1: but more commonly palm's fried, fried apples, patatz fried or
Speaker 1: simply frits. The words aguileads, needleds, or alamed match sticks
Speaker 1: are used when the French fries are very small and
Speaker 1: thin when enduring origin story holds that French fries were
Speaker 1: invented by street vendors on the pont Neuf bridge in
Speaker 1: Paris in seventeen eighty nine, just before the outbreak of
Speaker 1: the French Revolution. However, a reference exists in France from
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy five to a few pieces of fried potato
Speaker 1: and to fried potatoes. Eating potatoes for sustenance was promoted
Speaker 1: in France by Antoine Augustin Parmentier, but he did not
Speaker 1: mention fried potatoes in particular. A note in a manuscript
Speaker 1: in u S President Thomas Jefferson's hand circa eighteen o
Speaker 1: one eighteen o nine mentions potatoes deep fried while raw
Speaker 1: and small slices. The recipe almost certainly comes from his
Speaker 1: French chef Honora Julien. The sick cut fries are called
Speaker 1: palms pontu for simply palms freed about ten millimeters. Thinnervarians
Speaker 1: are palms a lamed magtick potatoes about seven millimeters, and
Speaker 1: palms pale potato straws four millimeters. Palms gufred are waffle fries.
Speaker 1: A popular dish in France is steak fried, which is
Speaker 1: steak accompanied by sin French fries. French fries migrated to
Speaker 1: the German speaking countries during the nineteenth century. In Germany,
Speaker 1: they are usually known by the French words palms freed
Speaker 1: or only palms or freton, derived from the French words
Speaker 1: but pronounced as German words. Often served with ketchup or mayonnaise,
Speaker 1: they are popular as a side dish in restaurants or
Speaker 1: as a street food snack purchased at an embustant snack stand.
Speaker 1: Since the nineteen fifties, coreversed has become a widely popular
Speaker 1: dish that is commonly offered with fries. Goreversed is a
Speaker 1: sausage often broadwurst or bockhurst, and a spiced ketchup based
Speaker 1: sauce dusted with curry powder and served with fries. The
Speaker 1: standard deep fried cut potatoes in the United Kingdom are
Speaker 1: called chip popes and are cut into pieces typically between
Speaker 1: ten and fifteen millimeters thick. They are occasionally made from
Speaker 1: unpeeled potatoes skin showing British chips are not the same
Speaker 1: thing as potato chips, an American term. Those are called
Speaker 1: crisps in the UK and some other countries. In the UK,
Speaker 1: chips are part of the popular and now international fast
Speaker 1: food dish fish and Chips, as well as many other
Speaker 1: dishes in the UK. Chips are not the same as
Speaker 1: French fries. Chips are more thickly cut than French fries,
Speaker 1: and they can be cooked once or multiple times at
Speaker 1: different temperatures. From eighteen thirteen on, recipes for deep fried
Speaker 1: cut potatoes occur in popular cookbooks the late eighteen fifties.
Speaker 1: At least one cookbook refers to French fried potatoes. The
Speaker 1: first commercially available chips in the UK were sold by
Speaker 1: Missus Granny Deuce in one of the West Writing towns
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty four. A blue plaque in Oldham marks
Speaker 1: the origin of the fish and chip shop and thus
Speaker 1: the start of the fast food industry in Britain. In Scotland,
Speaker 1: chips were first sold in Dundee in the eighteen seventies,
Speaker 1: that glory of British gastronomy. The chip was first sold
Speaker 1: by Belgian immigrant Edouard de Gernier and the city's green Market.
Speaker 1: In Ireland, the first chip shop was opened by Giuseppe Chervi,
Speaker 1: an Italian immigrant who arrived there in the eighteen eighties.
Speaker 1: It was estimated in twenty eleven that in the UK
Speaker 1: eighty percent of households bought frozen chips each year. Although
Speaker 1: chips were a popular dish in most Commonwealth countries, the
Speaker 1: thin style French fries have been popularized worldwide, in large
Speaker 1: part by the large American fast food chains such as
Speaker 1: McDonald's and Burger King Palms. Freed or just freed French Freton,
Speaker 1: a word used in Flanders and the southern provinces of
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, or pata used in the north and central
Speaker 1: parts of the Netherlands, became a national snack. Fries also
Speaker 1: come in the form of a common Dutch street food
Speaker 1: known as pataja orlac, translated to as war fries. It
Speaker 1: consists of fries dressed with mayonnaise, a peanut based satte
Speaker 1: sauce and garnished with diced raw onions, along with a
Speaker 1: variety of other optional ingredients. The town of Florenceville, Bristol,
Speaker 1: New Brunswick, and Canada, headquarters of Macane Foods, calls itself
Speaker 1: the French Fry Capital of the World and also hosts
Speaker 1: a museum about potatoes called Potato World. Macane Foods is
Speaker 1: the world's largest manufacturer of frozen French fries and other
Speaker 1: potato specialties. Canada is also responsible for providing twenty two
Speaker 1: percent of China's French fries. French fries are the main
Speaker 1: ingredient in the Quebequis dish known as putine, a dish
Speaker 1: consisting of fried potatoes covered with cheese, curds and brown gravy.
Speaker 1: Poutine has a growing number of variations, but it is
Speaker 1: generally considered to have been developed in rural Quebec sometime
Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties, although precisely rare in the province,
Speaker 1: had first appeared as a matter of contention in the
Speaker 1: United States. The J. R. Simplot Company is credited with
Speaker 1: successfully commercializing French fries and frozen form during the nineteen forties. Subsequently,
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, Ray Crock of MacDonald's contracted the
Speaker 1: Simplot Company to supply them with frozen fries, replacing fresh
Speaker 1: cut potatoes. In two thousand four, twenty nine percent of
Speaker 1: the United States potato crops were used to make frozen fries,
Speaker 1: ninety percent consumed by the food services sector and ten
Speaker 1: percent by retail. The United States supplies China with most
Speaker 1: of their French fries, as seventy percent of China's French
Speaker 1: fries are imported. Pre made French fries have been available
Speaker 1: for home cooking since the nineteen sixties, having been pre
Speaker 1: fried or sometimes baked, frozen and placed in a sealed
Speaker 1: plastic bag. Some fast food chains dip the fries in
Speaker 1: a sugar solution or a starch batter to alter the
Speaker 1: appearance or texture. French fries are one of the most
Speaker 1: popular dishes in the United States, commonly being served as
Speaker 1: a side dish to main dishes and in fast food restaurants.
Speaker 1: The average American eats around thirty pounds of French fries
Speaker 1: a year. In Spain, fried potatoes are called patatas fritas
Speaker 1: or papasritas. Another common form involving larger irregular cuts is
Speaker 1: patatas bravas. The potatoes are cut into big chunks, partially
Speaker 1: boiled and then fried. They are usually seasoned with a
Speaker 1: spicy tomato. Sauce Fries are a common side dish in
Speaker 1: Latin American cuisine or part of larger preparations such as
Speaker 1: the sauchi papas in Peru or Choriana and Chile. Whilst
Speaker 1: eating regular crispy French fries is common in South Africa,
Speaker 1: a regional favorite, particularly in Cape Town, is a soft
Speaker 1: soggi version doused in white vinegar called slap chips pronounced
Speaker 1: slap chips in English or slap chips in Afrikaans. These
Speaker 1: chips are typically thicker and fried at a lower temperature
Speaker 1: for a longer period of time than regular French fries.
Speaker 1: Slap chips are an important component of a Gatsby sandwich,
Speaker 1: also a common Cape Town delicacy. Slap chips are also
Speaker 1: commonly served with deep fried fish, which are also served
Speaker 1: with the same white vinegar. French fries come in multiple
Speaker 1: variations and toppings. Some examples include carne asada fries, fries
Speaker 1: covered with carneasada, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese, cheese fries,
Speaker 1: fries covered with cheese, chili cheese fries, fries covered with
Speaker 1: chili and cheese, Choriana fries topped with sliced mead, caramelized onion,
Speaker 1: and fried eggs. Curly fries characterized by their helical shape,
Speaker 1: cut from whole potatoes using a specialized spiral slicer. Curry chips,
Speaker 1: fries covered in curry sauce, dirty fries, Fries covered in
Speaker 1: melted cheese with various toppings such as bacon, pulled pork, chili,
Speaker 1: or gravy. French fries, sandwich fried potato with bread, including
Speaker 1: the chip putty, orseshoe sandwich, French tacos and the maitriat
Speaker 1: Greek fries. Fries topped with feta, cheese and various toppings
Speaker 1: such as tomatoes, red onions, and tatigi chi fries, Fries
Speaker 1: topped with caramelized bechu, kimchi and green onions. Loaded fries.
Speaker 1: Fries topped with cheese and bacon. Microwave fries Fries that
Speaker 1: are cooked in the microwave. Some frozen fries have instructions
Speaker 1: for microwaving. Oven fries Fries that are cooked in the
Speaker 1: oven is a final step in the preparation. Potato wedges,
Speaker 1: sick cut elongated wedge shaped fries with the skin left on. Poutine,
Speaker 1: a dish consisting of fries topped with cheese, curds and
Speaker 1: gravy and principally associated with the Canadian province of Quebec,
Speaker 1: salt and pepper chips, three and one chips, and the
Speaker 1: spice bag. Various British Chinese these fusion and Irish Chinese
Speaker 1: fusion dishes, shoes, string fries, thin cut fries, steak fries,
Speaker 1: sick cut fries, sweet potato fries, fries made with sweet
Speaker 1: potatoes instead of traditional white potatoes, Tornado fries, helico cut
Speaker 1: potatoes that are placed on a skewer and then deep fried.
Speaker 1: Triple cooked chips fries that are simmered, cooled, and drained
Speaker 1: using a low temp long time cooking technique. They are
Speaker 1: then deep fried at just one hundred and thirty degrees celsia's, cooled,
Speaker 1: and finally deep fried at one hundred and eighty degrees celsius.
Speaker 1: Waffle fries lattice shaped fries obtained by a quarter turning
Speaker 1: the potatoes before each neck slide over a grater and
Speaker 1: deep frying just ones, a baked variant. Oven fries uses
Speaker 1: less or no oil. Garlic fries a variant that includes
Speaker 1: garlic and parsley. Fries tend to be served with a
Speaker 1: variety of accompaniments, such as salt, vinegar, malt, balsamic or
Speaker 1: white pepper, cajun seasoning, grated cheese, melted cheese, mushy peas,
Speaker 1: heated curry, sauce, curry, ketchup, hot sauce, relish, mustard, mayonnaise, breneise, sauce,
Speaker 1: tartar sauce, chili, tatziki, feta, cheese, garlic sauce, fry sauce, butter,
Speaker 1: sur cream, ranched, tre barbecue, sauce, gravy, honey, aoli, brown sauce, ketchup,
Speaker 1: lemon juice, piccalilli, pickled cucumber, pickled gherkins, pickled onions, or
Speaker 1: pickled eggs. In Australia, a popular flavoring added to chips
Speaker 1: is chicken salt. French fries primarily contain carbohydrates, mostly in
Speaker 1: the form of starch, with some fat absorbed during the
Speaker 1: deep frime process and protein from the potato. Salt, which
Speaker 1: contains sodium is almost always applied as a surface seasoning,