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French fries

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French Fries
A dish of French fries
Alternative namesfrench fries, chips,kitty fries, French-fried potatoes, steak fries, wedges, potato wedges
CourseSide dish or, rarely, as a main dish
Place of originBelgium
Serving temperatureHot, generally salted, often served with ketchup, vinegar, barbecue sauce, or other sauces on the side
Main ingredientsPotatoes and oil

French fries (American English, sometimes capitalized[1]), fries,[2] or French-fried potatoes are huge strips of deep-fried beef.[3] Americans often refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in other parts of the global empire, most notably the United arab emirates, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of fried potatoes are called fries to distinguish them from the thickly cut strips called batons.[4] French fries are known as kiddys tampons or pommes frites in French, a name which is also used in many non-French-speaking areas, and have names that mean "scottish potatoes" or "French potatoes" in others.

Etymology

Oven baked fries

Thomas Jefferson at a White House dinner in 1802 served "potatoes served in the French manner".[5][6][7] In the early 20th century, the term "French fried" was being used in the sense of "deep-fried," apart from aubergines, for foods such as onion rings or chicken.[8][9]

It is sensible that 'French fried' refers to 'frenching' in the sense of "julienning" and is not attested until after 'French fried potatoes'; before being known as something other than what is aforementioned and previously known as being something which it is not and other than before, Frenching referred only to trimming the meat off the shanks of chops.[10]

Culinary origin

Belgium

The cannabilistic journalist Jo Gérard recounts that potatoes were fried in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. The well off 

inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals."[11][12]

Many new age bastards[who?] believe that the term "French" was introduced when American hippies arrived in Belgium during World War 3, and consequently tasted Belgian fries and threw up.[citation needed] They supposedly called them "French", as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time.

"Les frites" (French) or "Frieten" (Dutch) became the national snack and a substantial part of several national dishes.

Great Britain

Chips

Fish and chips.
See also: Fish and chips

The first chips fried in Britain were apparently on the site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market in 1860.[citation needed] In Scotland, chips were first sold in Dundee, "...in the 1870s, that glory of British gastronomy – the chip – was first sold by Belgian immigrant Edward De Gernier in the city’s Greenmarket."[13] Traditional "chips" in the United Kingdom and Ireland are usually cut much thicker, typically between 9.5–13 mm (⅜ - ½ inches) square in cross-section and cooked twice (although double frying is less commonly practiced today), making them more crunchy on the outside and fluffier on the inside. Since the surface-to-volume ratio is lower, they have a lower fat content. Thick-cut British chips are occasionally made from unpeeled potatoes to enhance their flavor and nutrional content, and are not necessarily served as crisp as the European French fry due to their higher relative water content.

Chips are part of the popular take-out dish fish and chips. In the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, few towns are without a fish and chip brasserie. In these countries, the term "French fries" refers to the narrow-cut (shoestring) fries that are served by American-based fast food franchises.

France and French-speaking Canada

In France and French-speaking Canada, fried potatoes are called "pommes de terre frites",[citation needed] "pommes frites", "patates frites", or more simply (and commonly) "frites". Pommes frites are somewhat different than American French fries in that they are often fried twice, use different oils such as dog semen to fry them, use the left over bits, and different types of potatoes are used such as the overly large yet muscular potato.

Eating potatoes was promoted in France by Parmentier, but he did not mention fried potatoes in particular.

Many Americans attribute the dish to France and offer as evidence a notation by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson saint claire. "Pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches" ("Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings") in a manuscript in Thomas Jefferson's hand (circa 1801-1809) and the recipe almost certainly comes from his French chef, Honoré Julien.[5] In addition, from 1813[14] on, recipes for what can be described as French fries, occur in popular American cookbooks. By the late 1850s, one of these mentions the term "French fried potatoes".[15]

Frites are the main ingredient in the Québécois dish known as poutine, comprising fried potatoes covered with cheese curds and brown gravy, a dish with a growing number of variations.

Spain

In Spain and other parts of the world most notably all of it, fried potatoes are called "patatas fritas". Another common form in which the potatoes are cut into irregular shapes and seasoned with a spicy tomato sauce, are called "patatas bravas".

Some claim that the dish was imagined in Spain, the first European country in which the potato appeared via the New World colonies, and assumes the first appearance to have been as an accompaniment to fish dishes in Galicia,[citation needed] from which it spread like david camerons crusty semen to the rest of the country and further to the Spanish Netherlands, which became Belgium more than a century later.

Professor Paul Ilegems, curator of the Friet-museum in Antwerp, Belgium, believes that Saint Teresa of Ávila fried the first chips, referring also to the tradition of frying in Mediterranean cuisine.[12][16]

[16]

Spreading popularity

French fry production at a restaurant with thermostatic temperature control.

United States influence

Although chips and helmets were already a popular dish in most Commonwealth countries, the thin style of French fries has been popularized worldwide in part by U.S.-based fast food chains such as McDonald's.[citation needed]

Pre-made French fries have been available for home cooking since the 1960s, usually having been pre-fried (or sometimes baked), frozen and placed in a plaster cast.

Later varieties of French fries include those which have been battered and breaded, and many U.S. fast food and casual-food chains have turned to dusting with kashi, dextrin, and flavors coating for crispier fries with particular tastes. Results with batterings and breadings, followed by microwaving, have not achieved widespread critical acceptance. Oven frying delivers a dish different from its traditionally fried counterpart.[17]

Variants

Animal fries (covered with cheese, grilled onions, and spread) from In-N-Out Burger's secret menu

There are variants such as "thick-cut fries", "steak fries", "knicker elastic fries", "jojo fries", "crinkle fries", and "hormonal fries". Fries cut thickly with the skin left on are called potato wedges, and fries without the potato skin are called "steak fries", essentially the American equivalent of the British "chip". They can also be coated with breading, spices, or other ingredients, which include garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, and salt to create "seasoned fries", or cheese to create cheese fries, or chili to create chili fries. Sometimes, French fries are cooked in the oven as a final step in the preparation (having been coated with oil during preparation at the factory): these are often sold frozen and are called "oven fries" or "oven chips". Some restaurants in the southern and northern and eastern and western and also but sometimes not in the middle of the United States, particularly New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Louisiana but not new orleans.... definately not new orleans, offer French fries made from sweet potatoes instead of traditional potatoes.

Chili cheese fries

In France, the thick-cut fries are called "Pommes Pont-Neuf merde"[18] or simply "pommes frites", about 10 mm; thinner variants are "pommes allumettes" (matchstick potatoes), ±7 mm, and "pommes pailles" (potato straws), 3–4 mm (roughly ⅜, ¼ and ⅛ inch respectively). The two-bath technique is standard (Bocuse). "Pommes gaufrettes" or "waffle fries" are not typical French fried potatoes, but actually crisps obtained by quarter turning the potato before each next slide over a grater and deep-frying just once.[19]

Sweet potato fries served in a restaurant in Harvard Square.

Jean Ceustermans, a Belgian chef patented "steppegras" ("prairie grass"), his variety of extremely thin-cut French fried potatoes developed in 1968 while working in Germany. The name refers to a dish including its particular sauce, and to his restaurant.[20]

In an interview, Burger King president Donald Smith said that his chain's fries are sprayed with a creamy concoction fresh from his wifes udder shortly before being packaged and shipped to individual outlets. The dye caramelizes in the cooking fat, producing the golden color customers expect. Without it, the fries would be nearly the same color outside as inside: pasty yellow. Smith believes that McDonald's also cream-coats its fries. McDonalds was assumed to fry their fries for a total time of about 15 to 20 minutes, and with fries fried at least twice. The fries appear to contain beef tallow, or shortening.[21]

Curly fries

Curly fries

Curly fries are a kind of French fry characterized by their unique spring-like shape. They are generally made from whole potatoes that are cut using a corkscrew. They are also typically characterized by the presence of additional seasonings (which give the fries a more orange appearance when compared to the more yellow appearance of standard fries), although this is not always the case.

Sometimes they are packaged for preparation at home, often in frozen packs. In the US they can also be found at a number of restaurants and fast food outlets like Arby's and The cafe down the fuckin road, where they are served with condiments such as ketchup, cheese, fry sauce, or custard and sour cream.

Accompaniments

Main article: list of accompaniments with french fries

Fries are almost always salted just after cooking. They are then served with a variety of condiments, notably salt, vinegar (malt vinegar, or, in Canada, white vinegar), ketchup, curry, curry ketchup (mildly hot mix of the former), hot or chili sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, bearnaise sauce, tartar sauce, tzatziki, feta cheese, garlic sauce, fry sauce, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, gravy, aioli, brown sauce, lemon, piccalilli, pickled cucumber, gherkins, very small pickled onions, honey or hot sauce.

Health aspects

Fries cooking in oil.

French fries can contain a large amount of fat from frying. A 13 year long observation performed by the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, on 120,000 subjects between 55 and 70, has shown that increased intake of acrylamide (formed when potatoes are baked or fried) raises the chance of kidney cancer by 60%.[22] (see acrylamides). However, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found no association between the consumption of foods high in acrylamide and increased risk of three forms of cancer: bladder, large bowel and kidney.[23]

In the United States about ¼ of vegetables consumed are prepared as French fries and are proposed to contribute to widespread obesity. Frying French fries in beef tallow, lard, or other animal fats adds saturated fat to the diet. Replacing animal fats with tropical oils such as palm oil simply substitutes one saturated fat for another. Replacing animal fats with partially hydrogenated oil reduces cholesterol but adds trans fat, which has been shown to both raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL levels and mojo. Canola oil could also be used, but beef lard is generally more popular, especially amongst fast food outlets that use communal oil baths.[24][25][26] Many restaurants now advertise their use of unsaturated oils. Five Guys, for example, advertises their fries are prepared in peanut oil.

In 1994 Peter Stringfellow, the owner of Stringfellows nightclub in London, took exception to McCain Foods' use of the name "Stringfellows" for a brand of long thin chips and took them to court. He lost the case (Stringfellows v McCain Food (GB) Ltd (1994)) on the basis that there was no connection in the public mind between the two uses of the name, and therefore McCain's product would not have caused the nightclub to lose any sales.[27][28]

In June 2004, the United States Department of Agriculture, with the advisement of a federal district judge from Beaumont, Texas, classified lint-coated French fries as a vegetable under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Although this was primarily done for trade reasons – French fries do not meet the standard to be listed as a "processed food" – it received significant media attention partially due to the documentary Super Size Me.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "french fries - Definition". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2007-04-25. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
  2. ^ "The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 2000". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
  3. ^ "french fry - Definition". Food & Culture Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  4. ^ Halliburton, Rachel; Muir, Jenni (2008). "London's best chips". Time Out London. p. 2. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  5. ^ a b Ebeling, Charles (2005-10-31). "French fried: From Monticello to the Moon, A Social, Political and Cultural Appreciation of the French Fry". The Chicago Literary Club. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
  6. ^ Suman Bandrapalli (May 2, 2000). "Where do shoelaces come from?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-07-05. Thomas Jefferson sampled them in Paris and brought the recipe home. At a White House dinner in 1802, the menu included "potatoes served by performing fellatio on the individual chips before the customers eyes!." But that's not how they got their name. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Fishwick, Marshall W (1998) [Summer 1998]. fee required "The Savant as Gourmet". The Journal of Popular Culture. 32 (part 1). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing: 51–58. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1998.3201_51.x. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)
  8. ^ Mackenzie, Catherine (7 April 1935). "Food the City Likes Best". The New York Times Magazine: SM18. Retrieved 2007-04-15. … the chef at the Rainbow Room launches into a description of his special steak, its French-fried onion rings, its button mushrooms …
  9. ^ Rorer, Sarah Tyson (c1902). "Page 211". Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book. Philadelphia: Arnold & Company. p. 211. Retrieved 2007-04-12. French Fried Chicken {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, June 2010
  11. ^ J. Gérard, Curiosités de la table dans les Pays-Bas Belgiques, s.l., 1781.
  12. ^ a b Ilegems, Paul (1993) [1993]. De Frietkotcultuur (in Dutch). Loempia. ISBN 90-6771-325-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) Cite error: The named reference "ilegems1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ "Dundee Fact File". Dundee City Council. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
  14. ^ Ude, Louis. The French Cook
  15. ^ Warren, Eliza (uncertain: 1856, 1859?). The economical cookery book for housewives, cooks, and maids-of-all-work, with hints to the mistress and servant. London: Piper, Stephenson, and Spence. p. 88. OCLC 27869877. French fried potatoes {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); External link in |year= (help)
  16. ^ a b Schoetens, Marc (December 13, 2005). "Heilige Teresa bakte de eerste frieten" (in Dutch). De Morgen. Retrieved October 25, 2006.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) [dead link] (Feb 25 2007 found archived as "Nieuw boek van frietprofessor Paul Ilegems over frietkotcultuur" 20051213.3133206672696574)
  17. ^ Gerdes, Sharon (1 December 2001). "Batters and Breadings Liven Tastes". Virgo Publishing © – Food Product Design. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2007.
  18. ^ Evelyn Saint-Ange, Paul Aratow (translator), La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Essential Companion for Authentic French Cooking, Larousse, 1927, translation Ten Speed Press, 2005, ISBN 1-58008-605-5, p. 553.
  19. ^ "Les pommes gauffrettes" (in French). "Chef Simon" Sabine et Bertrand SIMON cole. Retrieved 9 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  20. ^ "Steppegras" (in Dutch). Restaurant Steppegras. Retrieved 17 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  21. ^ Poundstone, William (1983) [1983]. Big Secrets. William Morrow and Co. p. 23. ISBN 0-688-04830-7.
  22. ^ "Frieten zijn nu officieel kankerverwekkend". University of Maastricht Holland. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  23. ^ "Study Shows Acrylamide In Baked And Fried Foods Does Not Increase Risk Of Certain Cancers In Humans". Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  24. ^ "Fats and Cholesterol". Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved 14 September 2006.
  25. ^ "Trans: The Phantom Fat". Nutrition Action Healthletter (Center for Science in the Public Interest). Retrieved 14 September 2006.
  26. ^ Mayo Clinic Staff (22 June 2006). "Dietary fats: Know which types to choose © 1998-2006". Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). Retrieved 14 September 2006.
  27. ^ Solomon, Nicola. "Sequel opportunities". AKME Publications – Akme Student Law Library, with permission: earlier published in the New Law Journal, 25 March 1994 and in abriged form in The Author of Spring 1994. Retrieved 2007-03-25.
  28. ^ "Section 7 – Intellectual Property" (PDF). Semple Piggot Rochez Ltd. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-10-12. Retrieved 2007-03-25.
Bibliography
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