I am fond of gadgets – electronic gadgets and kitchen gadgets not to mention gardening gadgets! Some are better than others. Over the years I have acquired a wide selection of them. Now that the kids have all flown, I am finding them again at the back of the cupboards. The kitchen has more cupboard space than the previous homes and with less people to cook for, the gadgets are more useful. One rediscovered  kitchen gadget – the French Fry maker for perfect fries.

Perfectly crisp fries

How to Make French Fries

This old gadget is the manual way to cut French Fries. First, you place the potato in the hopper and with a push, it comes out ready for the fryer. You can obviously use this for other things and comes with 2 sizes to make thick fries or thin ones. Getting them crisp is more complex than using frozen fries. There are many chefs online who have their own way to do this. When I was at college, my summer job was in the canteen of a local factory. Frozen fries were not an option and we had two large fryers. The morning started with pealing, then cutting the potatoes by hand, and setting them in sink of fresh water until needed.

About 30 minutes before the first shift came up for lunch, we drained the potatoes, then started blanching the fries in small batches. The oil was hot, about 375 degrees, and the fries were just patted dry with a towel. Throw the fries into the oil and stand back, as it can spit a little as the water hits the oil. After a minute or two the potatoes are fully cooked and just starting to crisp. At this stage, drain the fries and place to the side. To finish, let the oil reheat, pat the blanched fries to dry them again, then put them back into the hot oil for 2-3 minutes to crisp. This way of getting crisp fries works well for me and it works best with small batches.

Serving

Typically, we sprinkled salt over the fries before serving them. Today, I still do that as the fries tend to go limp if just drained on paper. We use salt much less today then in the 80’s! Other seasonings can be used such as cayenne pepper or even shredded cheese – though cheese does make them a little soggy as the cheese melts. Perfectly crisp fries are easy to prepare ahead and blanch just before friends arrive for lunch.

For large family meals it was  too time consuming to peel, cut and use the gadget so we resorted to bags of frozen fries. I love being able to use this gadget again though for small batches with fresh potatoes, which I hope will be garden fresh in the near future.