French Fries 101 – How to make them at home

Call them French Fries or chips — I’m on a personal campaign to make perfect ones. To be exact, the ones I want to make are the really skinny ones, shoestring or matchstick.   I’ve done the research for you, so here’s what you need to know.

The basic steps in making French Fries are:

1. Cut the potatoes – your choice on size and method, I’m fancy-shmancy so I use a mandoline and cut them to .5 cm (it measures in metric) – feel free to use a plain old knife and cut them to .25 inch.
2. Soak cut potatoes in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Drain and dry well
4. Cook the first time – around 360F until cooked by haven’t changed color (5 min-ish)
5. Cool on paper towels
6. Cook the second time around 365F until crisp (2- 3 mins)
7. Dry on paper towels
8. Salt to taste (if fancy-shmancy use sea salt)
9. Eat, feed to baby, wife, corgi, parrots

Favorite places to get Fries? Belgo’s, London and Les Halles, NYC

Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Fries from Scrumptious Street

Whether you like or hate TV’s reality chef and bad guy, Gordon Ramsay, here’s  his recipe for Matchstick chips recipe

If you prefer guys with British accents show you how to make fries (chips), here’s a BBC food video that makes it look pretty simple  – How to make the perfect chips video