Old Fashioned French Fries

For those of you who don't normally catch Mark Bittman in the New York Times I would like to point to a guest article by Edward Schneider about the 'old timey' method of producing very good french fried potatoes at home. This method has been around forever( my grandmother used it) and when I really have to have a good french fry it is my method of choice. The trick is to start with cold oil/fat and potatoes and slowly bring them up to temperature. The article spells out the method. This is an excellent method though it does have the downside of taking as much as an hour to do. I like to use peanut oil but canola works great as well. If you really want a change and a great taste use olive oil. Don't waste extra virgin on this unless you want to, regular olive oil works fine.

The French/Belgian method of two fries, one in relatively low temperature oil to cook the potato and the second in hotter oil to produce the crispiness works great but it is not easily done in the standard home kitchen. This method produces a fry just as good without a lot of hassle and a minimal amount of oil. You should try it and anything would be better than baking those frozen things in the oven...they are disgusting and expensive. Just allow yourself the time and you are good to go. This method also doesn't damage the oil/fat with high temps and you can save and reuse the oil a few times. Thrifty.

Edward also has a link to his lower temperature method for a good steak. This is a good method as well and produces a very good steak without a grill and all the smoke associated with the normal method of cooking a steak. I highly recommend it. I will admit to liking my steak cooked on my little hibachi with hardwood charcoal but that requires good weather and the mess of cleaning up. This method will get you a good steak that, in my opinion is almost as good. Just don't forget to salt and pepper the steak generously before it hits the fire. The persistent lie that salting meat before cooking sucks out all the juices is bull. There is a chemical reaction between the surface of the meat and the salt and the heat that makes the difference between just good and great.