That’s exactly what it is; several big fast-food chains, including Burger King, serve fries which have a starch coating, which they claim serves to keep the fries hotter and crisper for longer.
Ummm. DILs tater tot casserole is phenomenally BAD. I may try one myself and see if I can up it some.
I really really can’t tell you awful hers was.
Same for me. Crinkle cut fries are what you get served as a kid by a parent in the oven. They are the embodiment of culinary disappointment. Even when I get them served at a fast food place they are unpleasant. They are either soggy and floppy or like chewing sticks. There’s no middle ground.
The only time I have ever enjoyed crinkle cut fries was when I had them battered with a good crispy coating and properly seasoned after a deep fry. Then again, if you deep-fried a stapler with proper batter and seasoned it, it would also be delicious. When you have to cheat to make something good, that thing sucks.
Portillo’s, a Chicago hot dog chain (which has expanded to other states in recent years) serves crinkle cut fries, and they’re very good. They’re crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.
With a number of fast and casual places nearby, I can get every kind of fry there is. I tend to get most often crinkle-cut (well done!) or Farmer Boys Always-Crisp fries, which are battered or something. Great in any case. I’m fine with just about every fry type, save one.
Curly fries are Satan’s pubes and I refuse to eat at Arby’s because they switched decades ago.
In fact, a few years back, Arby’s started offering crinkle cut fries as well as the curly fries.
I’m going to stand by my boycott until they bring back the Arby-Q. In this case crinkle won’t do. The old fries were perfect just the way they were.
I’m not a fan of tater tot casserole and not really of totchos. I will eat totchos with a couple of friends who love them, but secretly wish I was eating tortilla chips.
But tater tots themselves are fine
Properly-cooked crinkle-cut fries are great. By which I mean, deep-fried at high temp, crispy and golden.
Steak fries are my least-favorite cut. I like crispy fries, they are generally not crispy enough for me.
I despise tater tots.
A somewhat-related aside; why can’t I buy large amounts of malt vinegar around here? I can get gallon jugs of cider vinegar, but I love malt vinegar, and can only buy it in little 12-ounce bottles…
Naw. He whines and brags about making fries for neighborhood gatherings, for relative’s weddings, etc. And it’s a production each time.
Performative martyrdom. Spare me. Actually spare you! Nobody should have to put up with that BS. 
Freezing fries before the final cook is an essential part of the process of making McDonald’s fries. Doing it at home is a pain, but it works. Kenji’s tested it.
Crinkle cut fries suck. Maybe worse than In-N-Out or Five Guys. Most other fry styles are just fine. This thread is making me want to go find some authentic PNW Jo-Jo’s.
If I know the fries come this way, I’ll just order something else. It’s the reason I don’t go to Burger King (one reason, anyway). I like all fries, including crinkle cut ones. But that coating is nauseating to me.
Of all the types of french fries, I like crinkle-cut the least. I always associate them with below-average frozen fries you get at the store. They manage to taste like they’re freezer-burned even when they’re cooked freshly cut.
Yes, I have an opinion on crinkle cut fries. I don’t like them. None of my favorite eateries which serve fries would deign to serve crinkle cut fries.
I have the same association as many, that crinkle cut fries are only served from the freezer, often undercooked in the middle. In fact, I sometimes had the idea that crinkle cut fries are just molded mashed potatoes, and that’s not a compliment.
50+ replies and no reference to Monty Python?
RIP Tony Page.
I grew up getting those from Albertsons. I could go for some right now.
That sounds like it might be functionally similar to the double-cooked/triple-cooked method
I like triple-cooked, but they’re sort of a different thing to (UK)chips / (USA)fries - like a different category of potato dish IMO
Years ago, I worked for a company in England that made machines that cut potatoes into chips/fries. We made two different machines and each one could cut different configurations.
One machine was rotary. The potatoes fell into a drum and centrifugal force propelled it past a blade and then through a grid. This machine tended to cut the chips short as they were across the potato.
The other was reciprocal. The potatoes were pushed through the first slice and then, on the return, through the grid. This made longer chips.
The size of the chips could be adjusted by altering the gap on the first slice and by fitting a different grid for the second. Knives and grids could be straight or crinkled
We shipped them all over the world, but in England, the standard chip is half an inch square. Scottish consumers seemed to prefer a slightly larger five-eighths chip. Both machines could make one-eighth (straw) chips, but the rotary one tended to get clogged up.
Both of the machines were electrically powered, but we also made a hand-cranked version of the reciprocal machine for the army to use in the field.
McDonald’s (and probably other outlets) chips are not “cut” from potatoes, but are made by extruding potato like toothpaste from a tube and cutting it to length.
I like tater tot’s too. In a pinch, they work good for a kind of hash brown for breakfast as well.
My go too though is steak fries. I don’t really like real crispy fries.