Deep frying with a lid on

[Sapo]

a small cauldron on a stovetop. Yes.

Since we are on topic. Sometimes I luck out and get good french fries. Most of the time, though, they come out leathery. What am I doing wrong?

[Kalhoun]

My mom had a nifty splatter screen. It was two pieces of tin with a bunch of holes cut in them. They were connected in the middle and you could offset the two pieces to allow steam to escape but still have good splatter protection. My grandmother bought it for her after she received a nasty burn from the dreaded exploding chicken skin bubble. I think my dad still has that thing. Unattractive, but very functional.

[Unintentionally_Blank]

@Sapo

a small cauldron on a stovetop. Yes.

Since we are on topic. Sometimes I luck out and get good french fries. Most of the time, though, they come out leathery. What am I doing wrong?

The Exhaulted Alton Brown says you’ve gotta two a to step cooking process where you cook the potato at a lower temperature for a period of time, remove, drain and cool, then crank up the heat to a higher temp to crisp the outside.

I just throw in frozen OreIda french fries…you get the same result.

[WhyNot]

@Unintentionally Blank

The Exhaulted Alton Brown says you’ve gotta two a to step cooking process where you cook the potato at a lower temperature for a period of time, remove, drain and cool, then crank up the heat to a higher temp to crisp the outside.

I just throw in frozen OreIda french fries…you get the same result.

Hee hee. Well, he’s not the first to come up with that method. All the good french fry recipes I’ve ever seen call for it. But yes, I’ve used his recipe before and it’s like restaurant fries. Do remember to salt your fries right when they come out and have a little oil still wet on them, or the salt won’t stick right.

Here, I’ll just let him explain it. Here’s what he said about french fries at a Q+A session transcripted here :

AltonBrown: There are two ways to make French fries. On our recent show “Fry Hard,” we advocated first blanching the fries in 325 degree oil, then removing them, letting them drain, and then finishing them in hotter oil. The point was to cook the fry just until it became limp and floppy, but not greasy. Finishing it in the much hotter oil serves two purposes - besides providing enough heat to brown the potatoes, it was hot enough to make the water inside the potato boil. That water then turned to steam, and pushed out from the inside of the potato, preventing the oil from entering. The result - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, not greasy. There is another way. If you start your French fries in medium-hot oil - around 300- 325 degrees - and remove them when they just become barely floppy, you can drain them, let them cool, and then finish cooking them in a 500-degree oven on a baking sheet, preferably with a draining rack. There will be just enough oil left on the fries from the first cooking to brown up the fries. The worst thing you can do for French fries is cook them in oil that’s not hot enough. The moisture in the fry can’t convert to steam, and the fry will become oil saturated. That’s just not right.

How long depends on the size of your potatoes, of course. I cut mine about McDonald’s sized, and it takes about 3-4 minutes at 320 for the first run through. Then I let them drain and cool completely (about 20 minutes) and put them back in at 375 for 2-3 minutes. Steak house fries will take a little longer on the first trip, but the second should be about the same, since you’re not trying to penetrate the mass the second time.

It’s kind of a pain in the ass, so I only make them about once a year…So much easier to stop at the drive through at the end of my block.

[Liberal]

One question, though. How is it that Hardee’s fries come out crispy, but they are fried only once. (I think.)

[Unintentionally_Blank]

They may be blanched ‘at the factory’

[WhyNot]

@Liberal

One question, though. How is it that Hardee’s fries come out crispy, but they are fried only once. (I think.)

As UB says, they’re most likely cooked once at the factory then flash frozen. Some fast food places also spray their fries with a mixture of salt and sugar water at the processing plant before freezing. The sugar, of course, caramelizes when the heat from the oil hits it, making their fries even more GB&D (Golden Brown and Delicious) than plain potatoes.