I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe **Ibanez **has a different idea of “high heat” than you and I?
:eek:
Potatoes in the processor with the grater blade
Put in hot grease
Flip
Eat
Wash blade.
Wash Food processor jug thing.
Wash Food processor base.
Repeat as directed when Spouse is displeased.
For real? I’ve never had shredded hash browns turn out well unless wrung of most of the liquid. Maybe I haven’t been as aggressive with the heat.
A question: I’d like to prep, say, 20 pounds of potatoes in advance for freezing in my home kitchen. Maybe half in dice, half shredded. I’ll be soaking the potatoes in acidulated water to keep from turning purplish, and for the shredded at least, squeezing as much liquid as I can out of them.
But what’s the commercial procedure? I guess Ore-Ida type stuff is parcooked to some degree, , and for ease of use, I’d like to parcook as well a tiny bit. I’m thinking microwave for five minutes, seal, and freeze. Thoughts?
Any advice from latkemakers? Perhaps squeezing them with cheese cloth?
I like making them from fresh, but they’re also pretty good made from left over baked potatoes.
I usually just shred raw potato, skin and all into a paper towel lined bowl to let them drain a bit, then I season them with S&P and toss them into a medium-high cast iron skillet with like an 1/8th inch of oil. Brown, flip, brown, eat…no sweat!
Also, when I was a kid, we didn’t have home fries, we had soft fried potatoes, which are a little different.
Are you sure our Grandmothers didn’t know each other?
Mom didn’t make home fries or normal fried potatoes, but she would boil new potatoes in the skin, spear them and peel them while hot, then sautee them in butter until the outsides were crisp while the insides were soft. HIGHLY recommended. 
I forget the cooling off period which is about 2 hours. My bad ?
From my Joy of Cooking, 1995 Edition, “About Potatoes”:
If you wonder why there are no recommendations for freezing potatoes in this chapter, let us say that this operation is not feasible with home equipment. Potatoes purchased frozen have all been treated to quick-vacuum partial dehydration and instant freezing, to which home equipment does not lend itself.
Are these like what my mother calls cottage fried? Relatively thick latitudinal slices (through the shorter dimension of the potato) fried as is? Just lovely, tasty, greasy, salty fried potato disks?
It’s entirely possible.
No, though that sounds good, too. (it’s ALL good) Soft fried taters are more rectangular, though you just can kind of cut them willy nilly right over the skillet if you want. They’re cooked in not that much oil and covered so they brown and steam simultaneously. Some folks take off the lid and crisp them up.
OK, lets try to simplify the discussion a bit. When properly cooked, is there ANY variety or shape of pan fried spud you wouldn’t eat? Toppings like chili or cheese are negotiable but the basics are pretty simple. Tubers plus hot greasy cast iron plus salt equals heaven on a plate in my book. Agreed?
The “properly cooked” qualifier means that I can heartily endorse the previous post. Potato-ey goodness…
Thanks for that. Although, I don’t see why potatoes couldn’t be frozen in advance, even if not to commercial specs.
I know some people have frozen par-fried potatoes (french fries), saving until ready for a higher heat final fry, with apparently good results. The effect of cold on the potato might be an issue, but maybe not.
An experiment awaits.
Hashbrowns have been around looong befor frozen french fries. My grandfather learned to make then when he was a cook for a logging camp at age 15. That would be 103 years ago.
Also, gummy hashbrowns are caused by not rinsing away the starch and drying them before cooking.
The problem we’re seeing here is the total cooking time. As I read your posting, you’re subjecting the spuds to a total of something in the order of 25-35 minutes by the time you’ve boiled them and fried them. Those are some tough spuds.
Seattle has two restaurants, owned by the same people, that have all-you-can-eat hashbrowns (the shredded kind) with most of their breakfast plates. I usually ask that they begin frying the second helping as soon as they deliver the first. In those places, a ‘refill’ is browns–if you want your coffee refreshed, you’d better specify that. The absolute best thing to eat after being awake too long, for whatever reason.
The first place is Beth’s Cafe, open continuously for almost 50 years now, excepting a 6-week hiatus rebuilding after a fire one time. The other is the Hurricane Cafe.
The home fries I make aren’t as small as yours a 1.5" thick home frie is as small as I go. They’re big ass home fries in comparison to yours that’s why.
Also when I initially boil the potatoes they aren’t home fries yet, just potatoes diced in 3 or 4 parts. After their boiled and cooled down is when I dice them down to my version of home fry size then fry with seasoning and bacon fat. They come out very crispy and soft in the middle. Sometimes I’ll throw in onions/mushrooms.
My larger home fries wouldn’t get cooked properly via your method, that’s why I boil them first. Their already cooked when I fry them , the frying part is just about getting them, crispy, seasoned and hot.
Like slow cooking ribs then throwing them on BBQ after the cooked. Same deal.
Oh, well that explains it, then. For that sized chunk I usually toss it them in olive oil and stick them in the oven.