# the lowly potato and french cuisine

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 5, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075 "2002-09-05T03:05:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pufnstuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c67d28/32.png) [@pufnstuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pufnstuff)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/1 "2002-09-05T03:05:33Z")

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Being both a sometime practicer of the culinary arts and a modest french speaker, I thought I had to correct you on one point.  
A little elemantary research might yield that the potato in french is the _pomme de terre_. I learned that in French 101. :rolleyes:  
Thus the proper name of the french fry in it’s native tongue, as it were, is the _pomme de terre en frite’_  
It should also have been noted that whatever unknown french chef who first fried the potato in hot oil was borrowing from a portuguese technique.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/2 "2002-09-05T17:20:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Thus the proper name of the french fry in it’s native tongue, as it were, is the pomme de terre en frite’

Except that it isn’t. The French do actually refer to fried potatoes as _pommes en frite_. But don’t ask me what they call fried apples.

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**Author:** ![monterey86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@monterey86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monterey86)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/3 "2002-09-05T18:40:47Z")

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OK to clear this up:

Pomme = Apple  
Pomme de terre = potato (lit. Earth Apple)

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**Author:** ![monterey86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@monterey86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monterey86)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/4 "2002-09-05T18:47:21Z")

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OK to clear this up:

Pomme = Apple  
Pomme de terre = potato (lit. Earth Apple)  
Frite = Fried

ergo Pommes Frites = French Fries

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**Author:** ![PBear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@PBear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/5 "2002-09-05T20:18:32Z")

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I’ve seen it both ways, both in cookbooks and on restaurant menus. Casual observation suggests that plain _pommes frites_ is considerably more common. Just as we say French fries when what we mean is fried Frenched potatoes. See [French Fries](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=133520) (another current thread on this topic).

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lowly-potato-and-french-cuisine/127075/6 "2002-09-10T03:23:40Z")

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PBear, your link is not on the topic, although there’s a link within that thread that mentions it, but is far from conclusive, offering 3 possible etymologies. Though I think the first two are more likely.