French Fries

French fries (or chips) are a well-known element of fast food.
Ingredients
- Potatoes (those with a high dry matter content such as Russet or Maris Piper work best)
- Cooking oil
- Salt
Steps
- Peel potatoes. Cut into thin straw-like pieces.
- Wash well with water to remove excess starch.
- Simmer or parboil in saucepan of water about 15 min.
- Drain. Dry well.
- Deep fry in 175°C vegetable oil, lard or drippings 4–5 min until light golden and crisp.
- Remove from oil. Drain on plate with paper towels. Transfer to another plate if necessary.
- Add salt. Shake to salt evenly.
Notes from the original
- You can vary the size of the potato slices. Thick wedge shapes are home-style fries or English-style chips, while thinly julienned potatoes make for shoestring potatoes. Cooking times will need to be adjusted accordingly.
- Try adding other spices after cooking. Minced garlic is popular in California cuisine.
- Instead of ketchup, serve with mayonnaise, gravy, barbecue sauce, or salt, hummus, and vinegar.
- For poutine (a French-Canadian treat), toss cooked fries with cheese curds and smother with gravy.
- Some cook the fries a single time in a generous amount of oil pre-heated to a temperature around 375 °F (190 °C) until they are golden and slightly crisp.
- The method recommended by most cookbooks and used by many restaurants, is to cook them in two stages: first at around 350 °F (177 °C) until the fries are nearly cooked but limp and pale; after they have been removed from the oil and allowed to cool, they are briefly fried at a higher temperature of around 375 °F (190 °C) until golden and crisp.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:French Fries” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-07-13, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Pommes-1.jpg by Rainer Zenz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






