Annabella asked me an interesting question over at her For The Heck of It blog when I responded to her Ultimate McDonalds Experience post. She asked about how to make crispy home made French fries.

The real secret is to fry them twice. But that’s not all there is to it.

Cut your potatoes into thin strips. It doesn’t really matter if you peel them or not. That’s your choice. Soak them in salted water while you heat your oil to 350 degrees. Drain and dry the potato strips, then put them in the hot oil a small handful at a time. When they start to float but are still white looking, take them out, drain them, and let them cool.

Cooking in very small batches like this helps the hot oil to completely surround the individual fries and helps to drive water out of them better. It also lets the water have a chance to cook out of the oil.

When they’re cool, put them back into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Now, you can actually put more into the oil than you did in the first step. They should now be crisp, the way you’d expect French fries to be.

You can also cook batches of fries in the first step, then bag and freeze them. Later, you can have French fries very quickly any time you want them by just cooking them from the frozen state.

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