Sides & Vegetables · American

French Fries

Name: French Fries
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 2 lb potato, russet (cut into 3/8-inch batons); 2 l water (cold, for soaking); 2 l peanut oil (for frying); 1 ½ tsp salt (fine)

4 ingredients · 65 minutes · 2 servings

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978kcal6.8g protein81.3g fat59.5g carbs~$1.32/ serving*

VegetarianVegan · without onePescatarianNo porkNo alcohol

Contains: peanut · May contain: soy

Ingredients

Servings:

2 lb	potato, russet (cut into 3/8-inch batons)
2 l	water (cold, for soaking)
2 l	peanut oil (for frying)
1 ½ tsp	salt (fine)
1 tbsp	vinegar (for the parboil variant)optional
¼ tsp	black pepper (ground)optional
½ tsp	garlic powderoptional
3 tbsp	ketchupoptional
2 tbsp	mayonnaiseoptional

Method

slice10 min
even thickness
potato into batons of one thickness — a pot of mixed sizes cannot finish at once, and the thin ones burn while the thick ones stay raw in the middle. Russets are the choice because their low sugar keeps them from browning before they cook and their high starch bakes fluffy rather than waxy.
rest30 min
submerged in cold water
batons + cold water, until the water goes cloudy. This rinses free starch off the cut faces; left there it gelatinizes on contact with hot oil and glues fries into clumps with a tough, leathery skin.
prep5 min
dry, spread on a towel
drain and blot every baton completely. Surface water flashes to steam the instant it hits oil, which spits violently and cools the fat exactly where you need it hottest.
fry7 min
325°F / 163°C, in two batches
batons in the oil until limp, pale and floppy but tender all the way through when pinched. This pass is a cook, not a browning — the interior must be fully soft now, because the second fry is too hot and too short to reach the center.
rest15 min
room temperature, on a rack
blanched fries in a single layer until cool and slightly dry to the touch. The starch at the surface retrogrades as it cools into a network that crisps into a shell; skip this and the second fry only browns what is already soft.
fry4 min
375°F / 191°C, in two batches
cooled fries until deep gold and audibly rigid when stirred. Higher heat drives out the last surface moisture fast enough to set a crust before the inside dries into cardboard.
season1 min
immediately, off the oil
drained fries + salt, tossed while the surface film of oil is still hot and wet so the grains stick. Salt a cooled fry and it falls straight to the bottom of the bowl. Drain on a rack, never on paper in a pile — trapped steam softens the shell you just built.