Thread: How To Cook Crisp Chips

I think that the temperature of the oil used for frying is important. It needs to be fairly hot to seal the outside of the chip and then allow the inside to cook. If it is not hot enough the chip absorbs more of the oil making it soggy.

Choice of spud is important too, around Ballarat you used to able to get Red Pontiacs, I have seen them anywhere else, they are THE best spuds for chips.

I think all the spud farmers grow the generic glug spuds that Mc Cains want them to now though.

Al

Proper chips are actually fried twice. Not sure why, but give them a quick fry, let them cool for a while, and fry again. Hot oil as Wood Butcher said.

JR Simplot made his fortune by discovering the potatoes could be frozen in between fries, and delivered frozen to McDonald's so they'd only have to fry them once.


Tex

Frying twice is the key.
The first fry is done at around 140-150 deg. This is to cook the potato. 9-11mins.
The second fry is done at 190 deg to crisp the outside. 2-3mins with 1-2mins in between frys.

Mmmm......chiiipppsss...

Choice of oil is also very important. Do not use the cheap stuff, i.e. home brand oil. Yep, speaking from experience

cheers
Wendy

Hi

Originally Posted by NCArcher

Frying twice is the key.
The first fry is done at around 140-150 deg. This is to cook the potato. 9-11mins.
The second fry is done at 190 deg to crisp the outside. 2-3mins with 1-2mins in between frys.

Mmmm......chiiipppsss...

Not in my book

The absolute BEST chips I have EVER had, were those cooked by my grandfather. That was many years ago.

His method was to shallow fry them, ie in a shallow frypan with the oil to about half the depth of the potato chips. During the frying process he would regularly "dose" the chips liberally with pepper.

The nett result was hot golden and freckled (with the pepper) chips - ABSOLUTELY mouthwatering.

Anyway, back to the question at hand. Potatos when cooked as chips in a deep fryer DO NOT EVER need to be cooked twice! Cooking them twice, especially in the hands of amateurs is the PRIME cause of soggy/oily chips! The ONLY reason to precook chips is to SAVE TIME when the customer places the order, they do not have to wait the full cooking time.

The ONLY way to cook chips in a deep fryer is, as has already been stated, in VERY HOT and GOOD QUALITY oil. The oil must be *JUST* smoking and a critical factor is that when the chips are put in the oil, the fryer itself MUST be able to recover VERY QUICKLY from the decrease in oil temperature. Gas powered deep fryers are the best for this. You can compensate for this temporary instant decrease in temperature by turning up the heat (gas) for a few moments prior to loading the chips.

It is also better for appearance only if the oil is slightly used. New clean oil will cook chips properly, however they look "white" as compared to oil that has been used for a few hours and then the chips come out in their golden brown colour mmmmm, is it lunch time yet

In another life, just after I got married, I managed two fish and chip shops after hours. Enjoyed it for two years but the hours were long, no weekends off but it helped us get our home sooner.

If *I* wanted chips for my own supper - which was almost every evening I would go out to the back of the shop, grab 2 or 3 potatos, run them through the peeler then the chipper and then into the deep fryer. THEN they had the REAL taste of PROPER chips. The improved taste of the FRESH cooked chips was worth the effort of having to clean the peeler and chipper.

On occasion when we ran out of precooked chips, those that waited for the new batch ALWAYS got MUCH better chips.

Originally Posted by echnidna

How do you cook crisp potato chips instead of soft and soggy ones ?

Get Ronald McDonald to cook some for you

Chips are obviously an important part of some peoples life for they seem somewhat passionate about the cooking process.

Choice of potato is important, waxy potatoes such as red pontiacs and kipflers make nice chips but a satisfactory result can be reached with most varieties.

Oil is the next to look at. I used Cottonseed oil at work. It has a higher burn point and does not flavour the chip as such. Olive oils are not as suitable because they have low burn points and will degrade much more quickly. I dont use animal afts because I like to be able to offer chips to vegetarians as well. Also as has been said the temp should be at about 175 degrees, realistically this should be tested with a thermometer as nearly every fryer is about ten degrees out when tested.

Cook them once or cook them twice I dont think there is a real difference in end result. As has been mentioned previously though take aways blanch chips to make the final wait much shorter for the customer.