# French Fries

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 1, 2002, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572 "2002-09-01T17:29:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![BioHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@BioHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BioHazard)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572/41 "2003-04-03T18:27:08Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by elfje \*  
> \*\*{snip}
> 
> And _Frenching_ means cutting in strips, not French the nationality!!! \*\*

And all these years I thought it was something really fun to do on a date. 😃

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**Author:** ![ElizabethB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/53a042/32.png) [@ElizabethB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElizabethB)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572/42 "2003-04-09T16:32:09Z")

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Well, this is totally irrelevant to everything everyone is talking about, but I just wanted to add to the article.

In \<I\>Fast Food Nation\</I\> by Eric Schlosser we find that French fries came to the U.S. pretty early but, just as in other places, it didn’t catch on immediately. " Although Thomas Jefferson had brought the Parisian recipe for \<I\>pommes frites\</I\> to the United States in 1802, french fries did not become well known in this country until the 1920s…French fries were popularized in the United States by World War I veterans who’d enjoyed them in Europe and by the drive-in restaurants that subsequently arose in the 1930s and 1940s. Fries could be served without a fork or a knife, and they were easy to eat behind the wheel."

Who knew?

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572/43 "2003-04-10T05:21:52Z")

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Any chance Schlosser backs up his WWI speculation with cites or at lease a bibliography?

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**Author:** ![ElizabethB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/53a042/32.png) [@ElizabethB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElizabethB)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-fries/126572/44 "2003-04-10T15:39:58Z")

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He has a lot of cites and an extensive bibliography, but it’s true, he doesn’t show where he got that particular nugget of information.

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