This is about what are called chips in the UK, which Americans call french fries. Specifically I am concerned with the frozen ones you buy to cook at home.
Here in the UK, what are called “oven chips” are widely sold in supermarkets. You are supposed to cook then by laying them out on a baking tray in the oven. You can also by frozen “frying chips” which you are supposed to cook in a frying pan or a deep fryer. Neither are simple slices of potato. I think both are partially cooked and impregnated with fat in some way. However, I have noticed that the cheapest brands of frozen chips sold in Britain (supermarket own-brand economy lines) generally seem to have instructions on them for cooking them either way, either in the oven or by frying. The more expensive brands, however, seem to come marked as either oven chips or (more rarely) frying chips.
What I am wondering, then, is whether there is really a difference between oven and frying chips, or is marking the packets as one or the other simply some sort of marketing bullshit. If I were to buy a good brand of oven chips and fry them, or, alternatively, a good brand of frying chips and cook them in the oven, would I get unsatisfactory, or less than optimal, results?
Incidentally, when I used to live in the USA, I do not recall ever seeing “oven chips” on sale, but I frequently bought frozen “fries” for frying. (Please do not sidetrack this thread into a discussion of whether or not oven [del]chips[/del] fries are available in America, though. At least not until my original question has clearly been answered.)
The US sells frozen crinkle cut fries. Directions on the bag says they can be baked in an oven on a sheet pan or fried. Ore Ida is a common brand.
I get crispier fires by frying. They are ok baked. The crinkle cut seems to get them much crispier than plain fries. That helps a lot if they are baked.
I was in the UK last week and though we rarely have homecooked chips we were looking for a quick meal and decided to buy some from Tesco. After we got back to where we were staying I noticed I had inadvertantly bought frying chips but we had no frying facilities, only an oven. We cooked them in the oven regardless and they tasted just like oven chips. So there’s one anecdotal datapoint for you.
I imagine the oven chips are pre-treated with fat/oil, whereas the chips for frying wouldn’t need this. But presumably they are still treated in something to stop them going black.
To avoid any additives, of course, you could go to the extraordinary length of peeling a potato. I make my own oven chips at home (less fatty and messy than deep frying). I just par boil home cut chips and toss in oil, before popping in an oven tray. MUCH tastier than the spongy stuff you buy pre-frozen.
But then, I also don’t understand people who buy frozen roast potatoes.
If (when) I take power in the UK, once the smoke has cleared and the dead have stopped wailing, the first bill to go through the house will introduce mandatory sentencing thus.
possession with intent to serve…
a) frozen roast potatoes - 10 years
b) pre-cut carrot batons - 15 years
c) frozen yorkshire puddings - life, no parole
OK, can you add appropriate sentencing for pancake batter mix (“just add milk and an egg” - yes, what we didn’t tell you is that this is a small expensive bag of flour)
Based on my experiences with the differences between British chips and American fries, the chips would be a lot easier to approximate with the pre-fried oven versions, since their ratio of crispy outer crust to fluffy inside is much lower than with the American fries, which are much more about the crispy outside.
That being said, yes, you can get “oven chips” in the US, and US or UK, they’re all what’s called “par-fried”, meaning that they’ve been deep fried once already, and are fully cooked then frozen. A huge proportion of restaurants use these as well.
Then the second time around, you either deep fry them the second time to crisp them up and warm them up inside, or you bake them to accomplish the same thing.
I’d imagine that somehow the difference between oven or frying chips would be some variation on the par-frying process that makes them better prepared one way or the other- probably the same one that distinguishes the US “Extra Crispy” frozen fries from the regular ones.
Some UK oven chips are coated in a thin batter (not always conspicuously declared on the front of the pack) - this provides reliable crisping - both in its own right as a batter, and because it prevents the oil coating from running off.
As far as I can tell, frozen “frying chips” are much the same as regular oven chips/fries. They still have about 5% fat, presumably from some kind of coating because it isn’t coming from the potato. Some of the products say on the packaging that they can be oven-cooked, grilled or fried (e.g), but I’m sure the same could be said of the other ones that are explicitly called oven chips or fries.
I’ve considered trying ‘oven fries’ (or whatever Ore-Ida style ones are). I don’t mind making beer batter for fish ,and frying them up. The chips are a little bit of a process. After slicing, you fry them until they’re limp. Then you take them out onto a rack and let them cool to room temperature. Then you increase the temperature of the oil. Then you fry them until they’re golden brown and delicious. Then you put them back on the rack and into the oven to stay hot until the fish is done.
Popping frozen chips/fries into the oven sounds much easier.
Actually the “par-frying” I spoke about earlier is basically that initial frying and cooling- the frozen fries are fully cooked, but they’re not crisped up yet.
So you really have two options- bake them or fry them.
I am not quite getting the clear answer I was looking for here, guys, although Ximenean’s post is at least to the point. Is it, in fact, OK to fry (even deep fry) frozen chips that are explicitly and exclusively sold (in the UK) as “oven chips”, or conversely, is it OK to oven bake frozen chips explicitly sold for frying, or will the results be horrible (or even more unhealthy than if they were ‘correctly’ cooked)?
As Ximenean points out (and as I mentioned in the OP) the cheapie brands such as this generally say you are free to cook them either way. In fact, that brand (or other, similar, supermarket economy brands) are what I have been using. I have been deep frying them, but I have not been getting consistent results (sometimes good, but often not), which I think may be due to poor quality control in these very low-end brands. Thus I am considering experimenting with some of the more expensive brands. However, most of the more expensive ones seem to be sold specifically as oven chips, and ones marked as for frying are rare. I want to know if it is actually OK to fry the “oven chips”. (I have not generally liked the results when I have done oven chips the oven way, and, anyway, as I have a deep fryer, frying is much less hassle. I also bought some microwaveable ones once, but they were dreadful, all limp.)
It seems to me that I got much better results when I was in the USA and used to shallow fry, but the “fries” sold there were meant to be for frying. Anyway, I am in Britain now, so I can’t get American brands.
I have also experimented with fresh sliced potato in the deep fryer, but the results were very disappointing, way worse than what I get with the cheapie frozen ones. Anyway, it is a hassle, and I want to be able to do them quick and easy.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that there is little difference between the two products. Sure, modern food manufacturing is an exacting process, so there will likely be a difference between chips made for the fryer and chips made for the oven, but the differences are marginal. The main difficulty you’re going to have is getting the right temperature and cooking time for the exact shape and degree of pre-cookness in the product, since it won’t be on the package for you.
In fact, I’m going to suggest that the inconsistent results you’re getting are more likely due to you than they are due to the manufacturer. Your fryer may not hold a consistent temperature, you may put more or fewer chips in the basket each time, the chips may stay out of the freezer longer for one batch than another. Even cheap chips have quality control an order of magnitude better than what you’re capable of in your kitchen.