No home-made French fry recipe is going to be ‘life changing’ – if you want McDonald’s-style fries, just visit the restaurant
- YouTube has many suggestions for making your own McDonald’s-style French fries at home, including how to cut and blanch potatoes, and even what to fry them in
- If you are so determined to get McDonald’s fries, why not just pay a visit to the fast food restaurant, which requires much less effort and little expense?
Like everyone else, I often fall into YouTube rabbit holes. During a recent food video binge, I found myself clicking on several recipes that claim to have the secret for making “life changing” French fries at home. Who can resist that?
Most of them start with russet potatoes, which are washed and cut. The julienned sticks are then soaked in water to remove excess starch, before blanching in hot oil.
Then you double-fry them at a higher temperature to achieve the extra crispy quality similar to that found in fast food restaurants.
Other steps include putting syrup into the water soak, as the sugar gives the potatoes more caramelisation and colour after frying. One chef says flouring the fries will enhance crispiness. Another suggests adding beef tallow to the oil on the second frying to give the fries a McDonald’s type flavour.
One restaurant chef who clearly had no clue about home economic costs told viewers they should use duck fat to fry for the best result. Does he realise how much that will cost?
Another with no sense of time management says chilling the fries for three hours between frying is a required step. Perfect for those days when you get off work after lunch to go home and start dinner.
Elderly relatives still using own chopsticks for shared plates? I hear you
Anyway, no matter how delicious all the results look on video, I am still never going to follow their recipes at home. Why? Because it’s just French fries!
All things considered, it is really not worth the time, energy and effort to spend on something I could just buy at McDonald’s for pocket change.
I can appreciate the nerd scientist experimentation to determine how to maximise crunch and taste – trial and error is the basis of any Michelin-star kitchen when infusing flavour into their food – but performing such overly elaborate measures simply for a cheap side dish is not my idea of time well spent.
With any recipe prep, I do consider the work-versus-reward ratio. In general, frying at home is not something I ever want to do, period.
Heating up a big pot of oil is troublesome enough, but in a hot Hong Kong summer, it’s just inviting misery. Then you’re stuck with a large vat of used oil, unless you plan to attain your daily dosage of trans-fats by reusing the content.
To me, cooking at home should be practical, simple and cost efficient. Pernickety French fries recipes just seem like self-indulgent kitchen exercises I can do without.
If I am going to expend so much effort, I want something grand and show-stopping – like an epic three-tier chocolate cake or an entire salt-baked fish to show off to the world. Otherwise, I don’t usually have the time or energy.
This is why I think people love roasting a turkey during the holidays. It’s mostly a low- effort, high wow-factor, show-stopping dish. Obsessing about fries is like a basketball player focusing on dribbling the ball between the legs – it’s a nice trick but it’s unnecessary and proves nothing.
Hong Kong gives out consumption vouchers. Stores raise prices. Coincidence?
Honestly, if you’re going to cook fries at home, use an air fryer. Forget the oil, forget the double frying. Skip the tallow and duck fat. Salt is all the seasoning you need.
It also won’t really matter what type of potato you use. If you’re cooking for your family, baked fries are just fine too. Most people drench them in ketchup anyway, so who can tell the difference?
And if you really want to have McDonald’s-style French fries, then just go to McDonald’s.
