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Food » rec.food.preserving » cold-oil spuds
| cold-oil spuds [message #109521] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 05:15 |
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A piece I wrote a while back...
Pastorio
----------------------------------
The all-wrong, amazingly-good, new-wave French Fries
Listen up. I’m about to walk you through a way to cook French fries
that’s completely wrong. It flies in the face of everything we all know
about deep-frying. It guarantees failure. It insures disaster. Except it
results in some of the very best fries I’ve ever had. I read about this
cooking method as written by Jeffrey Steingarten in “The Man Who Ate
Everything” and which I heartily recommend.
Some of the things we all know will be bad if you’re frying look like this:
* Potatoes won’t brown very well in fresh oil.
* If the oil isn’t very hot, the potatoes will absorb it and be very greasy.
* You need a lot of oil to deep fry anything; enough for the foods to
move around freely.
* Foods being deep-fried need to be stirred or shaken to make sure they
don’t stick together.
* Temperature is very critical and too high or too low means foods will
be improperly cooked and maybe even dangerous.
I’m sure you know even more of these doom forecasts. We’re about to
point at them and laugh. To wave our fingers in the faces of doom and
danger. To run off cackling in the secure knowledge that we’re right and
they’re wrong. Or, um, we will after I tell you what we’re talking about.
For frying, older potatoes work best. They’re starchier and generally
have less moisture that has to be cooked out of them. Older potatoes are
larger than young ones. Duh. For potato salad and the like, smaller and
fresher potatoes are better because they stay more moist.
For this particular approach, I used large russets which are generally
considered best for baking. They’re drier and mealier and besides, they
were the only ones I had since I bought them because I was on a baked
potato kick. They were largish potatoes ranging in weight from about 12
to about 16 ounces each. Big ones.
So here’s where the “errors” begin. Let’s do this for four normal
people - about four potatoes. Start by peeling the spuds. Or don’t.
It doesn’t make any difference in cooking time or final texture except
for the skin part, more about that in a minute.
Lay them on your cutting board and cut them in half lengthwise. You now
have two long potato halves. Cut the halves into slices longways, about
1/4-inch thick. You now have big slices of potato, at least compared to
the usual shoestring potatoes from most fast food joints. Don’t do
anything to the potato slices yet.
Here’s where it really breaks the rules. You only need enough oil to
just cover the potatoes, not gallons. I used a 5-quart stewpot, but a
large saucepan that holds a bit over a gallon will do it. Pour in about
a quart and a half of some oil (we’ll talk more about that in a moment)
but don’t turn the heat on. Slide the potato slices into the
room-temperature oil a few at a time making sure that each one is coated
by oil on all sides, until all the potatoes are fully immersed. If you
need more oil, pour some in, but the potatoes should be just covered -
maybe by a half-inch or so. Have faith.
Turn the heat on under the pot to high heat. On an electric stove with
a dial that goes from 1 to 10, set it at about 9. Do the corresponding
thing with your gas stove. Timing is rather loose and the temperature
will take care of itself.
At first, it looks like nothing is happening. Then, as the heat climbs
up over about 200F degrees, you’ll start to see bubbles. Maybe 6 or 8
minutes have passed. You’ll be tempted to stir or somehow move the
potato slices around. Resist the temptation. As the heat gets up near
250F, the bubbling gets more pronounced but the potatoes are still just
as white as when you put them in. Maybe 10 or 12 minutes in. Don’t stir
them.
When the oil gets up near 300F, you’ll start to see a little browning
at the edges. It’s now up near 15 minutes since you turned the heat on.
And now they start looking like French fries. Within another few
minutes, the cut surfaces begin to brown rather nicely and the
individual slices float. Now you can stir them very gently to satisfy
your need to meddle.
When the potatoes look like they’re done, a nice golden brown, scoop
them up with slotted spoons or whatever you usually use and lay them out
on paper towelling to drain. Congratulations, you’ve just made fries
that are utterly wrong and utterly wonderful. Salt and eat while much
too hot.
If you don’t peel the potatoes, you get that nice, crisp skin to
crunch. If you don’t like that, then peel. Or maybe peel half and leave
the rest au naturel.
The story about how I came to be doing the potatoes this way is a long
and devious one. Here’s the short version. I had bought a goose to roast
and, as we all know, geese are very, very fatty. I pulled out maybe 4
handfuls of solid fat from the critter before I started roasting it. I’d
heard that goose fat was good for frying, so I popped it into a skillet
and turned the heat on to render it.
It was amazing. The amount of fat was enormous and the nicely browned
cracklings were good.
I put the goose fat into the stewpot off the heat and cut the potatoes.
The goose was happily roasting in the convection and was nearly done -
maybe 25 minutes away. Peeled and cut the potatoes and slid them into
the oil and had to add more. I used canola oil for a total just at a
half gallon. Turned the heat on and hoped for my version of the
untested recipe to work. Boy, did it work.
The outside of the potato slices was a wonderful golden color and
gently crisp. The inside was creamy smooth, almost like, if you can
imagine it, slightly firm mashed potatoes. Amazing.
We ate some of the goose, but we ate all of the potatoes. And we did
more potatoes the next night. Skipped the third night. Fourth night, I
sliced the goose off the bone and made a rich gravy to go with it. I
peeled two of the potatoes and left the other two with skin on.
That sliced goose. The gravy. Toast. Right. They combine to make open
faced roast, um, goose sandwiches. Like open faced roast beef sandwiches
but a little different. Served the fries with the sandwiches. Everything
disappeared. Dipped the fries into the gravy. Heaven.
I’m going to play with this approach with other veggies. Sweet
potatoes. Maybe carrots. Who knows. Any ideas?
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109522 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 05:20 |
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Bob (this one) wrote:
> A piece I wrote a while back...
....and sent to the wrong group. This was supposed to go to RFC.
I'll post it there, but if you read it here, you can't read it there. I
don't make the rules...
Pastorio
>
> Pastorio
>
> ----------------------------------
> The all-wrong, amazingly-good, new-wave French Fries
> Listen up. I’m about to walk you through a way to cook French fries
> that’s completely wrong. It flies in the face of everything we all know
> about deep-frying. It guarantees failure. It insures disaster. Except it
> results in some of the very best fries I’ve ever had. I read about this
> cooking method as written by Jeffrey Steingarten in “The Man Who Ate
> Everything” and which I heartily recommend.
> Some of the things we all know will be bad if you’re frying look
> like this:
> * Potatoes won’t brown very well in fresh oil.
> * If the oil isn’t very hot, the potatoes will absorb it and be very
> greasy.
> * You need a lot of oil to deep fry anything; enough for the foods to
> move around freely.
> * Foods being deep-fried need to be stirred or shaken to make sure they
> don’t stick together.
> * Temperature is very critical and too high or too low means foods will
> be improperly cooked and maybe even dangerous.
> I’m sure you know even more of these doom forecasts. We’re about to
> point at them and laugh. To wave our fingers in the faces of doom and
> danger. To run off cackling in the secure knowledge that we’re right and
> they’re wrong. Or, um, we will after I tell you what we’re talking about.
> For frying, older potatoes work best. They’re starchier and
> generally have less moisture that has to be cooked out of them. Older
> potatoes are larger than young ones. Duh. For potato salad and the like,
> smaller and fresher potatoes are better because they stay more moist.
> For this particular approach, I used large russets which are
> generally considered best for baking. They’re drier and mealier and
> besides, they were the only ones I had since I bought them because I was
> on a baked potato kick. They were largish potatoes ranging in weight
> from about 12 to about 16 ounces each. Big ones.
> So here’s where the “errors” begin. Let’s do this for four normal
> people - about four potatoes. Start by peeling the spuds. Or don’t. It
> doesn’t make any difference in cooking time or final texture except for
> the skin part, more about that in a minute.
> Lay them on your cutting board and cut them in half lengthwise. You
> now have two long potato halves. Cut the halves into slices longways,
> about 1/4-inch thick. You now have big slices of potato, at least
> compared to the usual shoestring potatoes from most fast food joints.
> Don’t do anything to the potato slices yet.
> Here’s where it really breaks the rules. You only need enough oil to
> just cover the potatoes, not gallons. I used a 5-quart stewpot, but a
> large saucepan that holds a bit over a gallon will do it. Pour in about
> a quart and a half of some oil (we’ll talk more about that in a moment)
> but don’t turn the heat on. Slide the potato slices into the
> room-temperature oil a few at a time making sure that each one is coated
> by oil on all sides, until all the potatoes are fully immersed. If you
> need more oil, pour some in, but the potatoes should be just covered -
> maybe by a half-inch or so. Have faith.
> Turn the heat on under the pot to high heat. On an electric stove
> with a dial that goes from 1 to 10, set it at about 9. Do the
> corresponding thing with your gas stove. Timing is rather loose and the
> temperature will take care of itself.
> At first, it looks like nothing is happening. Then, as the heat
> climbs up over about 200F degrees, you’ll start to see bubbles. Maybe 6
> or 8 minutes have passed. You’ll be tempted to stir or somehow move the
> potato slices around. Resist the temptation. As the heat gets up near
> 250F, the bubbling gets more pronounced but the potatoes are still just
> as white as when you put them in. Maybe 10 or 12 minutes in. Don’t stir
> them.
> When the oil gets up near 300F, you’ll start to see a little
> browning at the edges. It’s now up near 15 minutes since you turned the
> heat on. And now they start looking like French fries. Within another
> few minutes, the cut surfaces begin to brown rather nicely and the
> individual slices float. Now you can stir them very gently to satisfy
> your need to meddle.
> When the potatoes look like they’re done, a nice golden brown, scoop
> them up with slotted spoons or whatever you usually use and lay them out
> on paper towelling to drain. Congratulations, you’ve just made fries
> that are utterly wrong and utterly wonderful. Salt and eat while much
> too hot.
> If you don’t peel the potatoes, you get that nice, crisp skin to
> crunch. If you don’t like that, then peel. Or maybe peel half and leave
> the rest au naturel.
> The story about how I came to be doing the potatoes this way is a
> long and devious one. Here’s the short version. I had bought a goose to
> roast and, as we all know, geese are very, very fatty. I pulled out
> maybe 4 handfuls of solid fat from the critter before I started roasting
> it. I’d heard that goose fat was good for frying, so I popped it into a
> skillet and turned the heat on to render it.
> It was amazing. The amount of fat was enormous and the nicely
> browned cracklings were good.
> I put the goose fat into the stewpot off the heat and cut the
> potatoes. The goose was happily roasting in the convection and was
> nearly done - maybe 25 minutes away. Peeled and cut the potatoes and
> slid them into the oil and had to add more. I used canola oil for a
> total just at a half gallon. Turned the heat on and hoped for my version
> of the untested recipe to work. Boy, did it work.
> The outside of the potato slices was a wonderful golden color and
> gently crisp. The inside was creamy smooth, almost like, if you can
> imagine it, slightly firm mashed potatoes. Amazing.
> We ate some of the goose, but we ate all of the potatoes. And we did
> more potatoes the next night. Skipped the third night. Fourth night, I
> sliced the goose off the bone and made a rich gravy to go with it. I
> peeled two of the potatoes and left the other two with skin on.
> That sliced goose. The gravy. Toast. Right. They combine to make
> open faced roast, um, goose sandwiches. Like open faced roast beef
> sandwiches but a little different. Served the fries with the sandwiches.
> Everything disappeared. Dipped the fries into the gravy. Heaven.
> I’m going to play with this approach with other veggies. Sweet
> potatoes. Maybe carrots. Who knows. Any ideas?
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109523 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 05:22 |
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In article <11dos227t9bao0c [at] corp.supernews.com>, "Bob (this one)"
<Bob [at] nospam.com> wrote:
> A piece I wrote a while back...
>
> Pastorio
>
> ----------------------------------
> The all-wrong, amazingly-good, new-wave French Fries
> Listen up. I¹m about to walk you through a way to cook French fries
(snip)
How long do you process them?
--
-Barb, <http://www.jamlady.eboard.com> 7/8/05 WeBeJammin'!
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109524 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 06:30 |
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Bob (this one) wrote:
> A piece I wrote a while back...
Hmmm... A BFB....
B/
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109530 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 17:47 |
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Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> In article <11dos227t9bao0c [at] corp.supernews.com>, "Bob (this one)"
> <Bob [at] nospam.com> wrote:
>
>
>>A piece I wrote a while back...
>>
>>Pastorio
>>
>>----------------------------------
>> The all-wrong, amazingly-good, new-wave French Fries
>> Listen up. I¹m about to walk you through a way to cook French fries
>
> (snip)
> How long do you process them?
No set time. When they're golden, they're done. Could take up to 20
minutes from the time you drop the first ones into the cold oil. These
are "cook by eye" things.
Pastorio
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109531 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 17:48 |
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Brian Mailman wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>> A piece I wrote a while back...
>
>
> Hmmm... A BFB....
?
Pastorio
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109532 ] |
Di, 19 Juli 2005 18:46 |
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Bob (this one) wrote:
> Brian Mailman wrote:
>> Bob (this one) wrote:
>>
>>> A piece I wrote a while back...
>>
>>
>> Hmmm... A BFB....
>
> ?
Boiling Fat Bath
B/
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109533 ] |
Mi, 20 Juli 2005 00:13 |
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Brian Mailman wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>> Brian Mailman wrote:
>>
>>> Bob (this one) wrote:
>>>
>>>> A piece I wrote a while back...
>>>
>>> Hmmm... A BFB....
>>
>> ?
>
> Boiling Fat Bath
Sounds like me in a very warm Jacuzzi.
Punctuated like this: Boiling Fat-Bath.
The cold oil technique can also be used for making fries from sweet
potatoes, turnips, <whisper - beets>, jicama and daikon. On;y the sweets
will get that crisp outside, tender inside. The others become different
things because of their lack of sugars.
Pastorio
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #109534 ] |
Mi, 20 Juli 2005 05:14 |
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On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 23:15:03 -0400, "Bob (this one)" <Bob [at] nospam.com>
wrote:
> I’m going to play with this approach with other veggies. Sweet
>potatoes. Maybe carrots. Who knows. Any ideas?
Try it with parsnips. I adore deep fried parsnips and this should
work well since it does the sweet potatoes well.
Loki
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| Re: cold-oil spuds [message #113196 ] |
Mo, 25 Juli 2005 22:37 |
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"Bob (this one)" <Bob [at] nospam.com> wrote in message
news:11dos227t9bao0c [at] corp.supernews.com...
> A piece I wrote a while back...
>
> Pastorio
>
> ----------------------------------
> The all-wrong, amazingly-good, new-wave French Fries
<snip>
I do mine in the oven. I simply cut up the potatoes, then give them a light
coating of olive oil and a good sprinkling of salt, pepper and sweet
paprika. Bake at 425 for about a half an hour, turning them over about
halfway through cooking. The cooking time seems to vary depending on what
kind of potatoes you use.
Another yummy version of this is to use Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in cubes,
and add coarsley chopped red onion. I used about 1/2 potatoes and 1/2
onions. I add Italian seasoning in addition to the salt, pepper and sweet
paprika. And before I learned of my daughter's dairy allergy, I also added
some freshly grated parmesan. I've made these for many different people and
there are never any leftovers.
--
See my webpage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/juliebove/index.htm
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