french fries

There are few foods that have been eaten at some point by just about everyone in the Western world, but french fries are one of them. Call them fries, call them chips, call them frites — whatever you call them, fried potato sticks are one of the most universally beloved junk foods on earth.

Ask any chef and he or she will tell you that there’s a real science behind making perfect french fries. If the oil is too cold, they’ll be limp and soggy; if it’s too hot, the outside will burn before the inside is cooked. All great fries need to be cooked twice; once in cooler oil to “blanch” them, and again in hotter oil right before service to crisp them up. The starch level needs to be just right, too; many chefs let their fries sit in water before cooking to allow some of the excess starch to drain.

When a fry is great it’s legendary, but when a fry is bad...it’s really bad.

Whether they’re Ore-Ida fries from the freezer section of your supermarket, fries hot out of the fryer from McDonald’s, or fries served alongside a burger at your local diner, french fries seem everywhere you turn in this country. But they’re not just an American food, they’re popular the world over. And why not? Fries are just about impossible to dislike.

You might think that chips and fries are identical save for the name, but visit a traditional British chipper and you’ll see that they couldn’t be more different. Chips are cut much thicker, are slightly soggier, and actually contain less fat than American fries because of their thickness.

Lastly, you would expect home made fries to get moldy, but no, they are not moldy, only soggy. Our hypothesis that the McDonald's fries wouldn't mold was correct, but where we predicted that the homemade fries would mold we were wrong. We think it may be because of the jars we put the fries in. They might have been moist or in a bad area of the house which affected the experiment.