The French Fry Secret Weapon

hey what's up if you've ever tried to make french fries at home then you know that it's basically impossible to recreate that crispy on the outside creamy on the inside thing that restaurant fries have today I'm going to explain why that is and then show you the secret weapon that I used as a restaurant Chef to make fresh potatoes into crispy fries every single time to get started I'll need some potatoes today I've got five to six pounds of a potato variety that you might not have heard of called Kennebec what is a Kennebec and how do you get them well a Kennebec is a white potato related to a russet but compared to a russet it has less moisture a bit more starch and a very low sugar content kennebecs are often used in industrial potato chip making for these specific traits this low moisture high starch low sugar combination is exactly what it takes to make fries at home that compete with the Frozen factory made ones that we're all used to eating in restaurants if you don't have all three in your potato you simply cannot make crispy fries full stop and if you're wondering hey Bry can russet potatoes be subbed yes but you'll need to temper your expectations that product won't be a 10 out of 10. it'll be good but not that crispy at the end of this video I'll compare the russets directly to the kennebecs so you can see for yourself right about now you're probably thinking to yourself secret weapon potato sick sign me up how do I get them the problem is that these potatoes are actually pretty hard to get most of the grocery stores in the US won't stock them but here are three options number one is buy them at the farmers market when they're in season most of the growers in my area grow some variety of Kennebec because they're disease resistant and very delicious number two and I think this is the best option is call your local produce purveyor and ask them if they sell directly to the consumer most local purveyors will have some variety of kettlebeck in stock for all of the restaurants that are making their own fries from scratch and number three is a wacky one but you could grow these yourself if you've got a garden I've done it before they're very easy to grow and as an added benefit if you store them properly they will last pretty much all the way through the winter now once you've got these kind of hard to get special potatoes to get them ready to be french fried I'm gonna peel the outside real quick then slice off one of the flatter sides so I've got a stable base to slice them then I'll pop off one of the rounded edges I don't want too many stubby Edge fries in the mix here next I'll cut the squared off potato into roughly 5 8 inch planks one and a half centimeters from there I'll come back and cut those planks into perfect little strips in the frozen french fry world this style of cut would be referred to as an extra fancy once these fries are all cut I'll pop them into a four quart container and bring them over to the sink from here I'll cover with cold water and agitate the fries to release any surface starch starchiness is a desirable trait inside of the potato but not outside too much starch on the outside leads to premature and uneven Browning in the oil so I'm going to rinse and agitate these at least three times before I finally just fill the container with cold water to cover the fries and once the water is no longer milky with starch like this I'll move these over to the fridge and soak for a minimum of eight hours but preferably 18 to 36 soaking the fries draws out additional starch and helps firm up the potatoes making them easier to move in and out of the oil without breaking the next day when I pull these fries out of the fridge you can see that they've plumped a bit from the soak and that's no big deal the water is going to cook out in the oil from here I'll drain off the water real quick then move these fries back to my cutting board where I prepared a wire rack a sheet tray and a triple layer of paper towels then using another paper towel I'm going to aggressively blot these potatoes to remove as much of the surface moisture as possible extra water on the outside is going to cool down the oil dramatically making the fries Fry at a really low temperature that can lead to excessive oil absorption and make for a much greasier fry now once my soaked fries are very well dried off it's time to french fry these little MFS so for that I'll grab a large heavy bottom pot and drop it on the stove into that I'll glog about two to three liters or a half gallon of canola oil however big your pot is it should be no more than 60 to 70 percent full of oil this will allow things to Bubble Up Without overflowing when the wet fries go in temp-wise I'm looking for about 280f and this pot's right in the sweet spot so next I'll lower in half of my fries and cook them at this lower temp for five minutes the technique that I'm using today is the classic twice cook fry we'll cook once at a low temperature to set the starch and cook the potato through and then we'll cook a second time at a high temp to make things crispy now these fries have about a minute left the perfect amount of time to thank Babel one of the top language learning apps in the world for sponsoring this video when Lauren and I went to France last year we used the only French that we knew to check into the hotel which roughly translates to hi I don't speak French do you speak English and the lady said we and allowed us to check into the hotel mucho early the people next to us on the other hand could only speak English and they were told that they had to wait many more hours before they could get the room maybe it was a coincidence but one thing I know for sure is that the next time I go to France which is hopefully soon I'm going to use Babel to brush up before I go Babel's language lessons are taught by real language teachers using real world conversations about things that you might actually use like food or travel Babel is scientifically proven to help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks so you don't even have to start learning that far in advance of your trip excuse me so to start speaking a new language or to brush up on one that you might already know click the link in my description below or scan this QR code to get 60 off of your Babel subscription thank you Babble after five minutes of low temp frying the starch on these fries is set and they should be cooked throughout so I'll lift them out of the oil drain them well and then move them over to a wire rack on a sheet tray as you can see these are tender but not mushy if you go too far on the first cook these will crumble apart when you move them into the hot oil now I'll quickly drop the second batch of fries here for their low temp cook then after five minutes I'll move those over to the wire rack now it's time to get things crispy the next step is to turn my oil pot up to medium high heat and then slowly bring the temperature from 285 to 375. this is a little bit higher than normal but the fries are going to cool the oil back down to about 360. that's the crispiness sweet spot in my opinion now once the oil is up to temperature I'm going to drop in half of my fries I'm doing this in batches so that each fry has plenty of room to sizzle overcrowd leads to a lot of steam in the pot which lowers the temperature of the oil and gives the fries soft spots in total this second fry is going to take about 7 to 10 minutes the very low sugar content in those kennebecs enables us to cook them for a very long time they just take forever to caramelize the longer we fry them the more water gets sizzled off and the crispier they become for comparison here are the russets at six minutes next to the kennebecs at the same time as you can see the russets are super dark and at this point I can tell you they're not even close to being crisp back to the kennebaks after eight to ten minutes of high temperature frying these kennies have finally taken on some light golden brown color compared to the russets these look a lot closer to the fries that we're used to seeing at bar and grills or fast food chains in terms of their yellow golden color now once I've got these moved over to a bowl I'm going to immediately hit them with a huge pinch of salt the best way to get that salt to stick is to toss when the fries are still very hot and coated with a thin film of that hot oil you guys this result is so worth worth a little bit of Adventure to track down the Kennebec potato these fries are literally perfect they're extremely crispy on the outside and extremely creamy on the inside and full of earthy potato flavor and here's what the russets look like after the exact same process very hot oh I mean at the end of the day it's still a creamy hot fresh fried potato that hits pretty good it tastes better than like a roasted potato or pretty much any other Potato you're gonna cook at home but as far as french fry performance goes like not that good yes the russets are good tasting food but they're not great french fries this this right here is Joy it's pure unadulterated mouth pleasure when I ate these I feel happy complete at ease if you see the Kenny's at your farmer's market this summer get some and make these fries or be brave and call your local produce guy I know he's got them I really hope you guys try these soon I'm begging you [Music] thank you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 373,324

Keywords: French fries, crispy French fries, creamy French fries, homemade French fries, best potato for French fries, French fries at home, potatoes, French fry recipe, best French fries, fried potatoes, Brian Lagerstrom, weeds and sardines, best French fry recipe, double fry method, crispy French fry recipe, French fry, fried food, how to cook fries, how to make French fries, perfect French fries, French fries recipe, restaurant style fries, secret to fries, best fries recipe

Id: RRnut6oIyDQ

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2023