I saw this method of chip making (French fries if you’re American) this week on America’s Test Kitchen and couldn’t wait to try it because it just seemed so easy and anything that’s easy if you have kids is a done deal for me. The other reason and most convincing was the topsy-turvy notion that starting to cook chips with oil at room temperature actually absorbed a third less oil than the more conventional method of frying them twice. Now I was listening…
Don’t you love it when something comes along that turns your culinary world upside down? I have or rather had this deep rooted imagine of anything fried in very low temperature surely has to absorb more oil, since it will be frying for longer soaking up oil. This reminds me of the old idea of browning your meat before casseroling/stewing seals in the juices…remember that one? I know! Seems crazy now doesn’t it?
This method appears to be first written by Joel Robuchon, but it has been around for a long while before that, it seems he’s not the creator. Here’s the NY Times article on it.
I’m addicted to America’s Test Kitchen because they’re nerdy, testing out recipes in many different ways. The area they really lack understanding is when it comes to producing good easy bread, they lack knowledge and deep understanding of the subject, for example spend twice as long producing bread rolls than they need to with too much faffing around, the other area I think they lack is in Asian recipes. But I’ve learnt plenty of interesting nerdy things especially when it comes to listening to Guy Crosby, Professor of Nutrition, with whom if I’m honest I have a big crush…he’s a walking talking McGee book! Can you imagine it? I’m sort of glad he lives thousands of miles away for fear that if he lived in this country I would become a stalker…I know I would. Just think how lucky he is.
How Cooking Potatoes From Cold Oil Works
Guy Crosby explains there is a certain amount of moisture in a potato, moisture you could squeeze out of the potato, moisture that lies on the surface of the potato and moisture in its crystal structure. Potato can only absorb oil when some of its moisture is lost, evaporated through cooking.
There is only so much water anything can hold, vegetable, rice, flour…or cotton wool for that matter…any given thing can hold a certain amount and therefore can not absorb anything else until some of that moisture has disappeared.
Moisture is lost through cooking and the more moisture is lost the more oil it absorbs. Potatoes fried at a higher temperature, the conventional way, will lose more moisture therefore has the room to absorb more oil.
Absorbing oil has nothing to do with how long the potatoes fry for but how high they’re fry at, because that high temperature will drive away more moisture. Frying potatoes this way will take around 25mins but the top temperature at the end reaches around 300F / 149C where’s in the conventional frying the potatoes may only be in the oil for 10 minutes but the temperature will reach around 350-375F / 176-190C.
The other disadvantage to the conventional method of frying first at lower temperature, then cooling, and finally frying it at higher temperature is, on cooling the surface oil from the first round of frying will soak into the potato. Remember the first round of frying doesn’t seal the outside of the potato, it only cooks the potato inside and the soft surface area of the potato will absorb that oil while waiting for the second frying.
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