We Found the Perfect French Fry Technique (How to Make it at Home)

Will is on a quest to discover the ultimate method for creating the perfect french fry. In this crispy journey, he draws inspiration from three distinct approaches: the classic method, the European/Belgium method, and the sophisticated confiting technique.
Join Will as he delves into the art of frying potatoes. You’ll witness his step-by-step experimentation with these three methods, each promising a unique twist on achieving that golden, crunchy exterior and fluffy interior.
First, Will explores the classic method, a staple in kitchens worldwide known for its simplicity and consistently delicious results. He demonstrates the entire process, giving you valuable insights into achieving fry perfection with minimal fuss.
Next, he takes on the European/Belgium method, celebrated for its double-frying technique that ensures extra crispy and flavorful fries. Will puts this traditional approach to the test, sharing tips and tricks to master this beloved method.
Finally, Will honors the culinary art of confiting, a sophisticated technique where fries are slowly cooked in oil at a low temperature before a final crisping fry. This method is renowned for producing incredibly tender and flavorful fries.
Whether you're a food enthusiast or a budding chef, this video is packed with valuable tips and practical knowledge. Will's journey to find the ultimate French fries will inspire you to experiment in your own kitchen and discover your preferred method for crispy, delectable fries.
So, get ready to embark on this crispy adventure with Will, as he cracks the secrets to the perfect French fries using the classic, European/Belgium, and confiting techniques. Hit that play button and elevate your snack game! Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more culinary inspiration and cooking tips.
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[@Mrdreadwarrior]

So for those interested in the 'Belgian' way of frying. Our traditional fritshops, or 'frituren', do some extra things to get that excuisite Belgian fries taste. So almost every frituur uses a specific potato called a 'Bintje'. It's a really firm potato with a lot of starch that helps to get a really crispy fry. The rinsing of the potato is a dividing point. Some don't rinse and keep the starch on the potato because it helps to make the fries more crispy. Some say it's better to rinse and dry them. The fat most frituren use to fry is ox or horse fat. We do this just because it gives even more taste to the fries. The first fry is a sort of blanche with the fat/oil at around 140°C for like 5 min to soften the fries. After 5 minutes we take them out and let them rest and cool down (most of the times a few hours). For your second fry the fat/oil needs to be 180-190°C to brown the fries and make them really crispy on the outside. Every good 'friturist' ends with tossing the fries a few times in the air in a special fries colander to rinse excessive fat away. This keeps the fries from getting soggy from absorbing the remaining fat. To really understand how good they are you should just eat them in Belgium ofcourse.

[@ludoghoos1175]

The Belgian way described here is is the only correct way to make fries, all the rest are superfluous.

[@Tryggvessalladsbar]

Thank you for this👍 Can you do the first fry a day ahead somehow? Sometimes you don’t have time to wait a few hours inbetween the first and second fry.

[@looooool3145]

This is possibly the reason why McDonald's fries used to have "natural beef flavoring" in it.

[@ludoghoos1175]

@@Tryggvessalladsbar You don't need to wait hours before the second fry, they just need to dry and cool down a little. I do the second fry 10 to 15 minutes after the first without problems.

[@chicoloco7108]

Love how jack at the end was seemingly in a world of his own thinking about the frying process haha

[@goldennuggetinfo8468]

Don't think he was. Probably thinking about his Mrs moaning about something insignificant.

[@maxanderson9692]

😂😂😂​@@goldennuggetinfo8468

[@CanuckAlert]

When I first started cooking in the 80's we used Lard in our deep fryers. The health push or Canola pushers convinced people to change to Canola Oil. Deep frying was never the same. There is a great breakfast place here that does Duck Fat Confit potatoes and they are amazing.

[@matprotium1205]

You are 1000% right. True chefs should always fry foods in animal fats or ghee/coconut oil. Saturated fats are extremely stable and hardly oxidize when heated. Vegetable oils (canola, corn, sunflower, soybean, etc) are pure crap loaded with unsaturated fats that are all oxidized and damaged.

[@maxcarter5148]

You need to freeze them again after the first round (or 2) of cooking and then do the final fry from frozen. I worked in a fancy fish and chip shop here in Australia for years and we did a ton of testing with our chips. Cooking from near frozen was almost always better

[@All7777Fever]

Did you guys blanch or double/triple fry?

[@maxineb9598]

Heston Blumenthal is the officionado of triple cooked chips. He experimented at great length.

[@maxcarter5148]

@@All7777Fever We double fried. Don't get me wrong triple fried is some top shelf potato but for our purposes we found a solid double fry technique using a good potato to be enough and more practical for our workflow and volume. Honestly the quality of potato and to a lesser extent the oil you fry in are up there for most important factors

[@fawawi371]

@@maxcarter5148 Really interesting, good insight! What type of potato would you recommend?

[@maxcarter5148]

@@fawawi371 we used local Kennebecs or sometimes Sebagos as backup. Not sure if you get them outside of Australia though. I hear Russetts are good outside of Aus

[@britbreaks4964]

They all look good but the confit... So on the naming goes back further than WW2: The expression "french fried potatoes" first occurred in print in English in the 1856 work Cookery for Maids of All Work by Eliza Warren: "French Fried Potatoes. - Cut new potatoes in thin slices, put them in boiling fat, and a little salt; fry both sides of a light golden brown colour; drain. Keep up the great work, been following Will since the Brixton pop up!

[@uberdump]

Thanks Will and Jack for the hello earlier today at Fowl and the comp extras at the end of the meal. ❤ Top chaps and the food and was 👌🏻. We will be back and keep the videos and comedy ones coming.

[@smoath]

I tried a triple cook chip experiment. I replaced both fridge spells and the first fry with 140° oven cook for 30 minutes or so. Then fry, and they were freaking awesome.

[@augustbagge4895]

How long did he confit the winning ones before chilling them?

[@kavijajayawardana1854]

Excellent chef

[@DavidBrown-ts2us]

Best results I've ever got are blanching in water, then frying once in a wok heated to about 230 (which dropped to about 180), then baked in a low oven. Don't know the science but they were mega crispy and well coloured all round.

[@bluwolf098]

I think its because they're getting more fried from the residual oil and dehydrated without absorbing more oil when you put them in the oven.

[@geog26]

@@bluwolf098 makes sense =p

[@JasonAllen-md4cc]

Hey Fallow love the video , any chance i saw a pierre koffmann recipe that looked interesting called Cassoulet with confit duck can u maybe show this on the channel thanks

[@MarioGaito]

hey fallows, do you think it's absolutely necessary to cool the fries down after confit? if i'm cooking them at home, for example, can i confit, remove them onto a towel, crank up my oil to frying temp (a matter of a dozen minutes or so) and then final cook them? chilling down a batch of fries in my home refrigerator would be a challenge wrt to space and time...

[@jkromes20]

i like the blanch with vinegar in the water. Freeze and fry. Easier to prep ahead of time. I just skip the freeze if i want the same day. Honestly the fry before freeze is great bc then its easy to get a good crisp in your oven too

[@DudeWithTheNose]

Always been taught to start my potatoes in cold water and then bring to a boil. Something to do with how the starches react. Any reason why you toss them in the boiling pot, or if you notice a difference?

[@meat_loves_wasabi]

I just use your triple cooked potato technique

[@EventHorizon222]

What are the temps in the confit method?

[@mattstrawbridge3342]

Question to you both. Which potatoes would you recommend for the best flavour, assuming you’re in the UK?

[@6c61]

So I think McDonalds do the Blanche and Fry method, but they cut / wash / blanche / freeze them at a factory, then fry them at the restaurant from frozen. There's a video on youtube from one of their manufacturers. In the restaurants (years ago) they used to use beef tallow for frying. I think Five Guys do the cut / wash / fry method (possibly double fried), I think they use peanut oil, but they start from a potato in the restaurant cut using a device bolted to a sink. The confit method is really interesting, never seen anyone do that, but I can imagine it is the best taste, probably akin to the original beef tallow fried method.

[@tonysutch2053]

Depends also on the type of potato you use. The crisp/chip manufacturers tend to go for less starchy varieties, which the general public and caterers can't seem to get their hands on that easily.

[@LeifEriccson43]

How long did you confit the fries?

[@DirtyHairy84]

Water blanch with 5% vinegar in water. Fry at 250 till you get a bubbly skin on the potato. Then lay on a sheet tray in a layer and freeze. Then fry at 350 on the pick up. Best homemade fries I ever made. Freezing is key for the potato to soufflé on the inside while being crunchy on the outside

[@devinmartin3673]

What kind of oil did you use for the blanched and double-fried fries? I'm sure confit would still take top honors, but frying the others in peanut oil rather than vegetable oil would certainly take them to the next level. One thing I've seen in restaurants I used to work in is that when blanching fries, add vinegar to the water to rough the texture of the spud up. After the cool down, freeze before frying. It's supposed to yield a craggy crisp shell with fluffy innards. My memory may not be spot on, but I think that's how I've seen it done. One restaurant I worked at actually purchased their fries frozen, but having already been blanched in water/vinegar and then frozen. It was a good fry - not amazing, but a level up on some other spots in town.

[@kevinsanders200]

Did you use a starchy potato or more of a waxy potato? Brilliant! Thanks for doing the work!

[@differentname5867]

They're using agria potatoes which are low moisture, high starch potatoes. Basically exactly what you want for fried/roasted potatoes

[@lemons_s]

The first step is to cook the fry and the second is to crisp it. I wonder for the first step if you could cook them in a low oven, and then fry them, would that lead to a better fry because less moisture? Is it necessary to cook them in a liquid for the first step?

[@joerecoveryjoerecovery5781]

What if you confit, and then double-fry at progressively higher temp?

[@j_vasey]

I believe maccies just fried them in beef tallow not quite confit but not a million miles away. As for blanch/fry x2 in oil basically. Not broken don’t fix it. However, blanch fry in dripping will blow your mind. Try it.

[@parttimehuman]

I think the easiest way to get the good results at home is to simply start with cold oil. I'm not interested in soiling more pots or double/triple frying things when I'm trying to focus on a pan sauce or whatever,

[@DiLLZGFX]

Guys video request! How to cook nandos chicken at home. Need help with brining snd the marinade . Thanks!

[@jonathanjacquet4628]

+1 for the Belgian fries. Precook at 140° for 7 minutes and then cook at 170° for 3 minutes. Normally, we use beef fat but this is happening less and less.

[@talsingh451]

what potatoes are used

[@YAARS16]

Tbf I believe the area of Belgium that they originated from was a region of France at the time

[@thomasryan1289]

Moons ago, when I was a teen apprentice chef, our Exec Chef told us french fries were named after how the potatoes are cut. In the spirit of full disclosure, he was French, so I'm wondering if there wasn't a bit of bias on his part.🙂 I don't know, I was 17 at the time, so I took his word for it.

[@BsktImp]

05:45 Paper towels 😂

[@AHG1347]

A friend of mine recently asked for recommendations while visiting London. People answered the classic tourist attractions and historical landmarks. My response was Fallow. Hopefully he is able to experience what you have crafted over there.

[@DiLLZGFX]

With the double fry, were they boiled first and then fried once and then twice? With confi, are the chips first boiled in the animal fat, and then deep fried?

[@freppie_]

correct on the 2nd 1

[@amirr.4825]

they didn't boil the chips for the double fry. it went straight to the fryer after getting rinsed

[@Aquablecs]

Brought the USA haters out of the woodwork with this video lads lol

[@armante4u]

A shame you did not try the ChefSteps method for the modernist version

[@deerichardz]

I don't know too many that say 'french fries'. I use just 'fries', or 'chips'.

[@tdylan]

"Welcome to America."

[@AKAtAGG]

@@tdylan FREEDOM FRIES MATE

[@LongbranchOlivetti]

No, I can absolutely believe that an american would not know the difference between Belgium and France.

[@seanhettenbach2101]

Yes but that's understandable. As I'm sure a European wouldn't know the difference between Kentucky and Alabama. ;)

[@guillaumeravenel7668]

​@@seanhettenbach2101 Of course you would think that since you don't even know the difference between a country and a country subdivision.

[@seanhettenbach2101]

@@guillaumeravenel7668 no, I do understand lol. You miss the point. Of course someone from a different region of the world, being in a foreign land, during a war time especially, could make the mistake. That's all I am saying. And that's not even the verified reason for it being called a French fry haha. Just a hypothesis.

[@Namesi]

@@seanhettenbach2101 You're being far too reasonable with someone who is determined to simply paint all Americans with a broad stroke, but your point is valid.

[@Midori_Seabreeze]

Isn’t the French for French-cut? 🤦‍♀️

[@AKAtAGG]

I have never managed really crispy fries without freezing them (after first fry or blanch).

[@basicjenkins]

What kinda knife is that, my dude?

[@helpyourcattodrive]

❤❤❤❤

[@tonyedwards4189]

They all fry up better if you freeze them after the 1st part then fry straight from the freeze

[@CoolJay77]

I fully agree, I do that. However, what I don't understand is that why commercially available frozen potatoes are tasteless. I am talking about skin on frozen, not the ones mashed and formed. I am in the restaurant trade, I cannot find frozen potatoes that taste like fresh. The vendors get me samples all the time.

[@paracelsian]

@@CoolJay77 The potatoes used probably aren't the best and probably aren't used at the best freshness. Plus whatever freezing method or volume they do seems to cause lots of ice and moisture on them

[@DuckyYtGaming]

3:38 am i the only one who saw a fire in the back???

[@59withqsb12]

What no comments? Well then I shall be honoured to be the first!! Looking forward to both this video, AND one day eating at your place... Love the look of your food and the vibe of your restaurants. Wishing you every continued success 🙂

[@Jacksimon18909]

Calm down.

[@PRIIZON]

@@Jacksimon18909 Down calm.

[@MenAreSpeaking]

I was always told that they were called French Fries based on the fact they were french cut.

[@reVeredForever]

I believe McDonald's originally used beef fat for cooking, not chicken. Now they soak the beef into the fries directly.

[@morganarutsatz6736]

I knew an American girl who thought the vietnam war was fought in the southern States. So totally possible the Americans thought they were in france.

[@Ironfranko]

100% correct with the origin of the recipe (dunno the name). They used to fry mussels in Belgium, and for some reasons there was a shortage of the shellfish, and then the resellers of fried mussels switched to potatoes. IIRC

[@markthrockmorton8059]

... and anything that sounds like "Belching Fries" would present marketing challenges.

[@andrewjohnson9003]

dood put the dog on freeze in there for the grease is even hot enough to cook it 😵😵 the trick to good freeze is getting one of them cookers that heat up what's the temperature dial, hit it at 400 F and then put all your fast food in there. and then just take it out when it's cooked good. ez. even with frozen fries, delicious

[@loginnamejon]

Try soaking the fries in a little sugar water to make them really addicting

[@user-pv5ti4hd2d]

what is it like working for you guys?

[@pokeybit]

Name them Fellows

[@trex70]

Boil the Chips in saltet Broth, and i will taste a lot better then normal ,Water boiled.

[@shakespearewilliam8423]

How many knobs in the comments telling people with no training that deep frying at home is 'easy'? I'm guessing, all of them...

[@bluebob81]

Im glad the triple cooked myth has been busted.

[@callen3570]

I have heard that French Fries are referred to as so because the technique/ style they are cut in is called French. Can't remember the source, nor do I know its credibility. But, hopefully someone else can chime in there.

[@ErikLudendorff]

Somewhat wrong on old McDonald's fries. They used to fry them in 90% + beef tallow and some with the other being some mix of other vegetable oils. Before they move to whatever inferior fry oil they use now.

[@lucien3956]

French fries are in fact actually French. The Belgians popularised them

[@freppie_]

blanched em too long, go for a minute of 4/5 and skip the cooling in the fridge, when i did that i fried them i had the crispiest chips i could wish for.

[@LeifEriccson43]

They're called French Fries because the potatoes are frenched.

[@eml0u]

Urgh I need new knives! These ones cut through everything like it's butter!!

[@giorgosdemetriou8323]

In my opinion the best fries are the double fried method. Put them in the freezer and cook the for the last time in super high temp until gbd

[@keenahudson1853]

Doesn't matter what you do if you don't peel the potatoes.

[@jeanmarcschipper8471]

Amazing they all look bad !

[@Mali-yb3zy]

Confit in fat and cooking twice is a proper Belgian style

[@jsytac]

Doesn’t matter if your cloths touch meat or fish. If you boil them, then they will be clean. Don’t wasting material. We need to be far more relaxed with food hygiene laws. They waste excessive food and material.

[@lxshitgupta3224]

Well well only one comment i shall be the one to write the 2

[@56ty78ui]

The origin of the French fries, is Belgium, but they never had skin on. When did skin on fries become the norm? Might as well have a jacket potato.

[@ciaranbyrne7922]

I got to ask, is this kitchen you are in specific for testing purposes? Coz if that’s the production kitchen it’s MENTAL that you have time to even speak never mind sit and cook stuff purely for testing

[@joshmore7175]

I think this is the kitchen at Fowl, their chicken restaurant

[@ciaranbyrne7922]

@@joshmore7175 mental to me they have time for things like this, kitchens I worked in if you don’t smoke then you’re fucked for breaks

[@ciaranbyrne7922]

@@joshmore7175 fair enough, kitchens I’ve worked in if you didn’t smoke then you were fucked for breaks, 12 hours straight no stopping

[@liesmith]

The postwar story is completely wrong; French fries have existed in America for centuries. The etymology isn't clear but it seems to be related to the technique of frying them in oil.

[@unclecrusty5241]

Holy shit..a chef that can't make a proper French fry .Europe is doomed.

[@73BigMC]

Chips are best cooked by someone else, like the Fallow chaps. They have the skills and the kit. Home deep frying is a recipe for disaster.

[@Colin-kh6kp]

To be fair, they didn't use any kit that wouldn't be in a home kitchen in this video, which I appreciate.

[@2552legoboy]

You don’t have to be scared of deep frying at home! Yes it can be messy and expensive but totally worth it

[@bejarni7173]

Here in Belgium most people own a "friteuse", basically a small deep fryer with electrical heating elements. It's quite safe compared to a dutch oven on a gas burner, and for 50eur it isn't exactly high end equipment.

[@TrueFilter]

Exactly. Complete pain in the arse. House stinks. Waste oil.

[@thejackoss]

You are wrong about the history of french fries. They are not from Belgium, they are really from France. Belgians claim they are from Belgium but it is historically inaccurate, it is very well documented that they are French.

[@joerglasch8255]

Are you sure?🎉 1789 is documented for the French in Paris but earlier at the Namur Region at the river Maas in Belgium

[@MeltyCrispy]

You better back this up with some facts... its very well documented that they're from Belgium

[@Okanoggin]

Cite your source.

[@mateuszwarzecha2092]

Dude peel potatoes !!! WTF? i will never eat not peel potatoes !

[@jordacus2249]

Skin on 🤢

[@aexexer627]

not healthy...I didn't like it...

[@izwhatitiz105]

STAY AWAY FROM SEED OILS AND VEGETABLE OILS A.K.A ENGINE LUBRICANT