# What is the orgin of French Fries
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [January 28, 2009, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356 "2009-01-28T05:50:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mjakubi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjakubi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2009, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/1 "2009-01-28T05:50:12Z")
I expected an more educated/accurate view of “pomme frites”. I would have expected that American G.I.'s were introduced to them in France during the First World War. The French don’t eat them with mayonaise, they eat them with aioli. By the way, the Belgiums invented “pomme frites”, not the French. check you rfacts.
---
### Author:  [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2009, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/2 "2009-01-28T10:17:05Z")
If you know the answer, why do you ask?
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/3 "2009-01-28T12:44:20Z")
> [@mjakubi](#):
>
> The French don’t eat them with mayonaise, they eat them with aioli.
Aioli isn’t particularly common in general, except in some part of the country. Let alone for fries. Actually, I’m yet to see anybody eating fries with aioli.
And in fact, most of the time, people eat them without any sauce. And if they do, IME, they’re indeed more likely to use mayonnaise than anything else.
---
### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/4 "2009-01-28T16:18:03Z")
Column in question: [What’s the origin of French fries? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2033/whats-the-origin-of-french-fries)
[QUOTE=mjakubi]
I expected an more educated/accurate view of “pomme frites”. I would have expected that American G.I.'s were introduced to them in France during the First World War.
[/QUOTE]
Except the column says that they were already in America in 1852.
> [@](#):
>
> In 1852, a chef (George Crum) at a resort in Saratoga, N.Y., was annoyed when a patron (the story says Cornelius Vanderbilt) sent some French fried potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining that they were too thick.
1852 predates WWI by a few years.
> [@](#):
>
> The French don’t eat them with mayonaise, they eat them with aioli.
What is aioli?
Also, a previous thread on this topic:
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=133520&highlight=french+fries+origin](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=133520&highlight=french+fries+origin)
There are others (you can search if you like).
Summary: there is no conclusive evidence where pomme frites originated.
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/5 "2009-01-29T00:48:03Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> What is aioli?
It’s similar to mayonnaise, except that it’s made with olive oil and with a large quantity of crushed garlic added. Vinegar/lemon juice might not be used, contrarily to mayonnaise. While searching for a recipe, I read that originally, it didn’t included any egg yolk, hence was essentially an emulsion of olive oil and garlic juice.
It’s traditional in Provence and accompany many dishes.[Aioli recipe](http://www.easy-french-food.com/aioli-recipe.html)
---
### Author:  [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/6 "2009-01-29T02:32:31Z")
I thought the first french fries were made in grease.
:smack: some puns don’t work as well when written.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/7 "2009-01-29T04:36:00Z")
> [@mjakubi](#):
>
> I expected an more educated/accurate view of “pomme frites”. I would have expected that American G.I.'s were introduced to them in France during the First World War. The French don’t eat them with mayonaise, they eat them with aioli. By the way, the Belgiums invented “pomme frites”, not the French. check you rfacts.
While I have posted in past years to challenges to Dex’s column, I didn’t have the digital tools which are available today.
As to your assertion that American G.I.'s were introduced to them in France in WWI for the first time----------nope.
Use Google Book Search to find [Hood's Practical Cook's Book: For the Average Household ... - Hood, C.I., & Co - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=gYYEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136&dq=shoestring+potatoes+date:1880-1910&lr=&num=20&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES)
A cookbook from 1898. Published in Lowell, Mass.
> [@](#):
>
> ```
> **French Fried Potatoes**
>
> ```
>
> Pare good-sized potatoes and cut them in long strips of uniform size, say a quarter to half an inch in thickness. Put them in cold water with a little salt, faor half an hour, then take them out and drain them dry on a coarse cloth. Fry in a frying basket (if you have one) a crisp brown in boiling hot lard. Then drain on brown paper. It makes a nice dish to cut the strips of raw potato still finer. They are sometimes called “shoestring” potatoes.
They actually go back farther, but this was easy to find.
As to whether the Belgians “invented” the delicacy we enjoy today–all anyone has to do is provide a verifiable cite. But, so far, we haven’t found one.
---
### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/8 "2009-01-29T04:39:30Z")
Mmmmm! Fries fried in animal fat! Okay, the lard ones were undoubtedly better, but I miss McDonalds frying them in tallow.
Peanut oil and olive oil have their points.
Jebus, no wonder I’m so fat. ☹
---
### Author:  [@Threadkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Threadkiller)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/9 "2009-01-29T11:42:35Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#):
>
> I thought the first french fries were made in grease…
Being a good Idaho boy (just don’t ask about Larry Craig) I know the TRUTH. The origin of French fries is Potatoes.
---
### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/10 "2009-01-29T15:28:50Z")
About the only thing going for the WWI idea is not that they brought French Fries back to America, but that they popularized French Fries into the ubiquitous item they are today. But I would think that drive ins probably played a greater role. Perhaps, though, there was some synergy there?
But yeah, French Fries were known in America and called that well before WWI.
---
### Author:  [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/11 "2009-01-29T17:22:26Z")
I’ve always seen mayo (containing Dijon mustard) served with fries in France. Belgium offers more choices of condiment including my fave, “pickles” -pronounced pick-ellez", piccalilli for the Brits, I think.
It’s hard to agree upon the origin of what we know as French fries, though I’m convinced that the fact that the French laugh at Belgians for their ubiquitous frites gives credence to the the theory that they are a Belgian creation. Well, it’s not scientific proof, just my take.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/12 "2009-01-29T23:22:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> Except the column says that they were already in America in 1852.
Looking at it closely, it doesn’t say this at all. It says that potato \*chips \*were introduced in 1852, but that’s a different food.
In fact, Dex fudges the issue almost entirely.
> [@](#):
>
> Frites spread to America where they were called French fried potatoes. You asked how they got their name–pretty obvious, I’d say: they came from France, and they were fried potatoes, so they were called “French fried potatoes.” The name was shortened to “french fries” in the 1930s.
They spread to America. Gee, thanks. That could be at any time before the 1930s from what is written.
The [Online Etymology Dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=french&searchmode=none) has this:
> [@](#):
>
> French fries is 1918 Amer.Eng., from French fried potatoes (1894, first attested in O.Henry)
This raises the possibility that they were not well known throughout American culture until WWI, but that single line is too flimsy to build much of a case on.
It doesn’t give an origin of “to french” so has there been any new discoveries along that end?
---
### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-orgin-of-french-fries/483356/13 "2009-01-30T00:41:25Z")
From the article:
> [@](#):
>
> In 1852, a chef (George Crum) at a resort in Saratoga, N.Y., was annoyed when a patron (the story says Cornelius Vanderbilt) sent some \*\*French fried potatoes \*\*back to the kitchen, complaining that they were too thick.
So yes, the article does state that French fried potatoes were in the U.S. by 1852.