The fries were limp because the oil wasn’t hot enough when you dropped the potatoes into the fryer, or you had put too many potatoes into the fryer at one time. That causes the oil temp to drop.
The fries are brown because they were cooked too long. You have to pass golden before you get to brown. The hot oil continues to cook/brown the fries after you remove them from the cooker. Remove the fries before they achieve the color your looking for.
The oil’s temp drops because your putting too many potatoes in the fryer at one time. Make smaller quantities. Or get a bigger fryer. Or only make three or four fries at a time until you perfect your technique.
Restaurants cook fries/chips all day everyday in 350 degree oil. They don’t reduce heat…they just cook until they float and they are done. As someone said above with respect to a pan…it will be very hard to get a good temp. Use a pot or a Fry Daddy.
For extra crispy…pull your chips, blot dry, drop them again for another minute or 2
A lot of times they will parcook the fries (or have a batch of parcooked fries) and freeze them. When you do the first lower temp fry, you don’t have to finish it right then and there. Plenty of recipes, in fact, recommend freezing them at this point, and then frying them up at 375F straight from frozen to finish.
I’m also reading on the web that the blanching/washing step washes the starches and sugars off which helps keep the sugars from browning too much, so you get a golden fry rather than a brown fry, so you might want to try that, too.
When you cut potatoes they leak starch, you can see it on your knife and cutting board. You need to soak your home cut French fries in water, for about an hour. And you need to change the water a couple of times. That will wash off the excessive starch on the surface.
If you leave that starch on, it cooks and browns, long before your French fries are properly cooked. They look good, but not yet crispy!
After soaking in water, (and changing out the water at least once!), dry the potatoes well, then fry. Now by the time the exterior gets golden brown, the fries will themselves be crispy and yummy.
Ooh, lots of good stuff in so many posts there. The basket isn’t even half full and I’m cooking about 3 potatoes weight in 2 kg of beef dripping. The chips are thoroughly washed and dried beforehand.
I think that tomorrow I will go and buy some more beef dripping. That should mitigate the temperature loss.
Oh, man, can you actually buy beef drippings out there, or is this something you’ve saved up over time? Around here in the US I generally can only find lard when it comes to animal fats. It’s good freshly rendered pig fat where I’m at, but that’s about the only type I can find. I’m jealous.
Another thing to do, is heat the oil to temp at a medium setting on your stove.
When it’s just starting to bubble, add the French fries and turn the burner up to high. That way the oil doesn’t drop temp suddenly because of the cool potatoes. Even temp maintained will help make better fries. (If you try and fry, at fry shop temps, your house will smell like a chip shop!)
Go to the butcher department of your supermarket and ask for beef suet. Specify you want organ fat, not muscle fat. They’ll probably give it to you for free, they might charge $1/lb.
You’ll have to render it, but that’s dead easy - cut it up to 1 inch cubes, remove as much membrane as you can, and toss in a crockpot on low for several hours, stir occasionally, then strain through cheesecloth to get the lovely, lovely rendered tallow. It will cool to a hard block of fat.
Hmm…I’ll have to try that. I haven’t had much luck with speciality requests like this at the big supermarkets I go to, but I’ll try. What it says on my local foodie board is that beef suet is difficult to find at supermarkets here, because “most of the beef sent to grocery stores is box beef that would exclude items such as suet.” There are some specialty shops that sell it, though. Although I do see one post that says the local Meijers often carry it by the beef bones, so I’ll check next time I’m out there.
My supermarket (Market Basket, in MA), usually has it in the “novelty meats” section, with the neck bones & pigs feet & caul fat and such. They must be getting cuts big enough to include the suet, because it’s not prepackaged or anything - just big, rough, sometimes bloody blocks of fat on a foam tray wrapped in plastic.
ETA: Your location says Chicago - doesn’t every piece of beef in the country go through your city? There should be huge blocks of suet floating in the lake, or something.
I tried again tonight and it’s unfortunately as plain as a pikestaff that the thermostat on the thing isn’t working properly. My bad luck to get a duff fryer.
If you’d mentioned that little detail earlier I’d have pointed out my instructions were for making French fries on a stove top, in a pot with oil. Or I’d have just left them out altogether as not applicable.