Home-made chips (fries)

Morning Glory

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I've been making home-made chips (as opposed to cooking frozen oven chips :oops:) over the last few days. This is all to do with having turkey and other cold meat leftovers from Xmas. I like nothing better than cold meats, pickle and chips. I have realised how much better home-made chips taste!

So - do you make home-made chips? If not, why not? And which fat do you use and what methods?
 
So - do you make home-made chips?

Yes.

And which fat do you use and what methods?

Generally sunflower oil or soybean oil but the deep fry currently contains beef dripping.

Peel the potatoes (generally), chip and soak in tepid water for at least one hour. Then dry on a few layers of kitchen paper prior to adding to the hot oil/fat. My deep fry is a "rotofry" which rotates the basket on an angle dipping the chips in and out of the oil/fat. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

chips 1 s.jpg
 
The "rotorfry". The chips in the bottom two thirds of the image are in the oil/fat, the remainder are not. It takes around 20 seconds to rotate a full 360 deg.

cooking chips s.jpg


[Edit: the oil/fat is regulated to 180 degC]
 
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I do occasionally. I don't peel the potatoes but soak and dry as @Yorky. I sometimes then toss them in a little potato starch for extra crispness. I fry in small batches in a multi cooker using sunflower oil and then drain on kitchen paper. If they get a bit cold I pop then in the fat again for a few seconds. I only do a few for the two of us as cooking a large batch in the multi cooker would take forever!

I only cook chips if husband is having "steak, egg and chips' or I made 'fish and chips and mushy peas'. Both we only have about twice a year.


I bought some oven chips recently when facing some chips. I forgot how awful they are. Chippy chips are delicious as a cheap, convenient food but I think a completely different potato dish, like the difference between mashed potatoes and pureed potato.
 
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Heston Blumenthal's triple cook method works for me. Its a bit of a faff, but we don't have chips that often and it's well worth the effort. The chips are par-boiled, blast chilled (on a rack, in the freezer), deep fried at 120 deg C until just brown, blast chilled again, then finished in the deep fryer at 160 deg C. Currently I am using duck fat, but supplies are running low, and 160deg C is on the upper temp limit without burning it. Ideally the final deep fry should be hotter, so I am about to switch to rapeseed oil. I also use the same method for roast potatoes and roast parsnips. - it's the only way I have found of getting the latter remotely crisp without burning them.

Incidentally, I read recently that McDonald's use pretty much the same method for their fries, but they also coat the fries in some sort of starch or sugar.
 
Given that potatoes are my staple diet, I have tried numerous methods of cooking them, chips and roasties being one of the most common. I've tried par-boiling then single frying and also double frying, frying with or without a lid, parboiling then freezing (that didn't work), double frying without par-boiling; in the end I just prepare and cook them as detailed above and the result is fine.

[I still parboil the potatoes prior to roasting].
 
Incidentally, I read recently that McDonald's use pretty much the same method for their fries, but they also coat the fries in some sort of starch or sugar.

Given that I do not consider any fried potatoes from McDonald's as "chips", I do not think I shall take their advice.
 
I've used the cold oil method last few times we've made french fries, your chips. They have come out really good as long as you follow the technique, recipe exactly. It's actually pretty easy in that you put them in the cold oil, turn on the heat, and then just leave them alone. You just have to follow the prep, amount, time, patience, and leave them alone rules, the last of which seems to be impossible for some people. The only bad thing about them is that the technique makes a limited quantity unless you run 2 or more pots at the same time.

As far as what we call chips, which are potatoes sliced extremely thin on a mandolin, then deep fried very quickly, I cut them as thinly as possible, soak them in hot salted water for 1/2 hour at least, rinse under tap water, drain in a colander for a few, then spread out on paper towels to get fairly dry. I don't know the exact temp I fry them at, it's a setting in my stove I use as I don't like getting the thermometer or the deep fryer out. It's a 7 out of 10. I fry them until light golden brown, which takes hardly any time since they are so thin. Remove from oan with a spider or slotted spoon to a rack, sprinkle with salt. You can keep warm in the oven, which you may have to keep them in even if it's not warm. These have a tendency to disappear almost as soon as they are out of the hot oil if they are left visible and accessible. There have been instances of hand slapping to keep them from all being eaten before dinner!
 
I only make Spanish "Patatas Bravas" at home ( spicy potatoes is the poor translation ).

The difference in the shape is key here, they are cubed verses lengthwise in form ..

They are fried in Evoo.

I believe I posted the récipe when I first joined ..
 
Does anyone make oven chips, and if so what method do you use? The reason I ask is that, it surely has to be the healthier and cleaner option as opposed to using the traditional fry in the pan of oil/lard/dripping method. However I am not being critical in my last comment, as the taste of chips fried in dripping are superb when made correctly.
 
Does anyone make oven chips, and if so what method do you use? The reason I ask is that, it surely has to be the healthier and cleaner option as opposed to using the traditional fry in the pan of oil/lard/dripping method. However I am not being critical in my last comment, as the taste of chips fried in dripping are superb when made correctly.

Oven chips - yes I do make them sometimes. But really I think they are roasted wedges of potato rather than chips! I sometimes parboil (or microwave) first but not always and then place on baking paper in an oven tray, drizzle with oil (olive or rapeseed) and sprinkle with herbs and salt, toss them around a bit and then bake until done.
 
I've previously posted details of my pathetic effort of cooking oven (halogen) chips.
 
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