How do you make McDonald's-type fries?

[cookingwithfat]

Omni,

I think I was clear in my last post that you would not be getting the information you need here. Frankly, I don't think you are going to get it anywhere. The fry you are looking for is a secret and if you really want to reproduce it then you are going to need to do some experimenting. Now, I know your profile says "can't boil water" yet you are talking like you know a thing or two about working in a kitchen, or at least you REALLY love food. I mean, for crying out loud, you are the kind of person who has taken the time to figure out that McDonald's used to use Beef tallow to cook their fries and have started doing the same... Now you want to say you just want a cooking time and temperature. Frankly, that seems counter to the person you seem to be.

The person who uses beef tallow to make fries is the same person who is inquisitive enough to do some experiments with timing and temperature.

If your not.. fine.. here is how you make the fries you want.

Buy a 40 pound LP deep fat fryer.

Fill it with 40 pounds of rendered and clarified beef fat. Frankly, I prefer duck fat... but, if you insist go with the cow.

Peel and cut 10 pounds of Russet Potatoes to 1/4 inch thickness


Heat the fat to 250 degrees and cook half of your potatoes for 10 minutes.

Remove from fat and let drain and cool.

When cool toss them all in a mixture of 90% AP Flour and 10% finely ground corn meal and freeze them.

Repeat the process with the remaining 5# of potatoes. Why would I have you cut 10# when you could get the job done with only 5# - or for that matter a half pound - you may ask? Because I feel like having you peel a ton of potatoes and get real Zen about what it is that you are doing this for and frankly, 5# is not enough for you to get the full feeling of why you are engaged in this process.

Once the potatoes are frozen heat your big *** commercial grade deep fat fryer up to 375 degrees and drop as much as you want into a basket.

Now here is where things get complicated... because you see, even McDonald's screws up the fries from time to time, which is why they put alarms on their fryers. Their employees will wander off to talk on the phone... do whatever it is they do in the bathroom... or just space out in ADHD land... until.. whoa! the fries got burned. You... and I mean YOU, must watch these fries and FIGURE out the EXACT right time that works for YOU, as your commercial grade deep fat fryer is going to be different from mine.

Watch them closely, with a kitchen timer - or any darn stopwatch you please - until they are the color you want them to be. You see, COLOR is the key here. Pull them out... put them in a large bowl and throw in more salt then you are comfortable - because that is what McDonald's does - and toss them... eat 'em. Enjoy.

If they are the color you want, but too crispy, use less corn meal.
If they are the color you want, but to limp, use more corn meal.
If you find that your fries are cooked too much: cook them less.
If you find them cooked to little: cook them more.

Now, if you are not willing to purchase a commercial grade deep fat frier then buy one of those little guys at walmart but.... you are going to need to do all the experimenting for yourself!

If you don't want to go to all the trouble from above do this...

Go to McDonald's
Purchase an order of French Fries of a size to suit your taste.
Take them home.
Put them in your freezer.
When you are hungry next pull them out and reheat them.

If you want them to be extra soggy, they just microwave them. (I am under the impression that you are ant-crispy so maybe this is the way for you.)

For a little extra crispiness, drop them in your newly purchased 40 pound industrial deep fat fryer.

Good luck and let me know how things work out.

[cookingwithfat]

Not being a smart alec as in my previous post, you should know that all you need to do is cut the fries to the thickness that you desire.. blanch them at 250 degrees for about 7-10 minutes (you NEED to figure this out for yourself as I don't know how your fryer works.) Cool your fries and then reheat them at 350 degrees. If you increase the temperature your fries will be more crispy... if you decrees the temperature they will be more limp. This will not produce a "McDonald's french fry" however it will produce a delicious fry that I think you will enjoy.

YOU must EXPERIMENT.

[Omni]

Cookingwithfat, you have WAY too much time on your hands, LOL!!

If you'd known a proven procedure for making non-crispy fries, you'd have said so 10,000 words ago; your belated offering is guesswork, not to mention far too elaborate for beginning cooks... and the claim that an industrial frier is necessary to create fries that aren't crispy, when every home cook has produced such fries by accident in a regular frying pan, is just plain ridiculous.

I wasn't aware that you had psychic knowledge of the full cooking wisdom of every member of this forum; if you do, you could've saved us all alot of time by saying so days ago... and if you don't, please stop monopolizing this thread so that other people will feel comfortable telling what they know.

[shel]

Omni ...

Reading this thread it seems that you've been given numerous suggestions and techniques that will give you the result you want. In short, if you've got the taste down to where you like it, the rest is really up to you to experiment with time and yemperature. It's really that simple. No one can give you the answer since everyone's stove, fryer, thermometer may be somewhat different. Here's what I'd do: get your oil up to 350-degrees, put in a certain amount of fries, say 6-oz, fry for ten minutes. Now look at the results, taste the results, feel the results. Adjust time, temperature, and amount of fries until you get the results that YOU like.

I work in photigraphy. When using film, we'd have to calibrate the exposure index. If we wanted perfect results, rather than "close enough" we'd start at a certain EI, make several exposures that were greater and lesser around that point, and check the results. Then, when we've found the best exposure, we'd then calibrate development time, developing more or less to get that to be precise. Then, once we had the proper exposure and development time for a given emulsion, we were set - unless we used a different camera or light meter, as each could produce different results. NO two were exactly alike.

Now, say I found the perfect combination, and gave those results to a buddy who lived across the country. S/he could use my results as a starting point, but if greater precision was needed, s/he'd still have to run his or her own tests. The cameras would be different, the way the development chemicals were mixed might be different, as might the quality of the water (harder/softer), his or her timer may not be exactly as mine.

Now, go out, get some fries, and experiment until you get the results you want. Oh, and by the way - your idea of soft may not be the same as someone else's idea of soft. So even if someone gave you exact times, temperatures, precise amounts of fries and oil, they may still not get results that satisfy you. You may still prefer your fries to be more or less crisp.

In another thread I asked about baking a frittata. I got several suggestions and ideas, and one or two recipes. The rest is up to me. Tonight I made a frittata following a recipe that I was given. The results didn't satisfy me. But it was a starting point. Now it's up to me to experiment a little with times, temperatures, and amount of ingredients to get exactly what I want, using my equipment, my ingredients, and the amount of ingredients that I have on hand. It will take a while to perfect the recipe for my situation and tastes. I may have to make the dish a few more times in order to get predictable, repeatable results.

Shel

[AprilB]

OK, I'll tell you how McD's DOES it and how they end up soggy. (my definition of "non-crispy")

The secret is: You fry them like normal, drain them and let them SIT.

Doesn't take long. Make a normal batch, drain them and leave them under a heat lamp for ummmm... maybe 5 to 10 minutes... that should do it.

<blea> IMHO

April

[Omni]

Shel, I've never seen a recipe, for fries or anything else, that gave an essay like the ones I've gotten on this thread instead of proven cooking times; you're not going to convince me that there's something magical about non-crispy fries that means that no normal recipe can be given for them.


April, I've had McDonald's fries that went from the oil to my mouth in less than 30 seconds, and they weren't crispy; that's why they RULE.

[indianwells]

Omni, why not just buy them from McDonalds when you need a fix? Life is surely too short to spend a lot of time trying to recreate something like a fry.

[Omni]

You're absolutely, totally, 100% correct, Indianwells, life IS too short to make that sort of effort to produce fries; that's why I thought it'd be a smart idea to ask skilled cooks how to make them... silly me!!

This has gotten way out of hand; all involved must have better things to do than write pages of essays that don't get me any closer to being able to drop the trial and error and just plain cook a dish. I'm canceling my subscription to this thread, and will no longer return here to read it; I'm going to look elsewhere for the answer to this question.

[Blade55440]

Originally Posted by Omni

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I have unsubscribed from this thread, and won't be returning looking for further replies; move along, folks, there's nothing to see here.


Every recipe I can find tells you how to make fries that are "nice and crispy"... but I HATE crispy fries. The best fries I've ever had are from McDonald's; pale, smooth, not mushy but totally non-crispy, not mealy or greasy. Can anyone tell me how to make fries like that? We've got the frozen pre-cut potatoes from Ore Ida for now, and we're using beef lard because it gives the best flavor; I'd truly appreciate knowing how to combine the 2 into tasty fries. Thanks!!


(Who's Omni? You can find me here: Every Topic in the Universe(s?))

Too bad she unsubscribed. I could finally put the 4+ years of McD's experience to good use with that question...

I consider this a lost opportunity. :P

[shel]

Originally Posted by Blade55440

Too bad she unsubscribed. I could finally put the 4+ years of McD's experience to good use with that question...

I consider this a lost opportunity. :P

If you feel up to it, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Shel

[cookingwithfat]

I have to say, I have never seen anything like that. I mean, short of showing up at Omni's house and cooking the f*$king fries for her, there was no way to satisfy her. Yea, ok ... I may be a bit of a smart a#* but I think I pretty much spelled it out and frankly it was not guess work. I went upstairs, after the night was over, and worked on producing a coating that was McDonalrd's-esq and then explained it... wow.. there is just no pleasing Omni.

[DC Sunshine]

Awwww don't tell me we can stop talking about soggy fries now

[ricwhiting]

I surprised that no-one has mentioned the fact that the cut fries (russets only please) need to be soaked in ice water for at least 1/2 hr., then dried before frying at 280 degrees for about 3 minutes. The time can not be more accurate than this because of the variables of: fry thickness and size of fryer. Following the 1st cooking, the fries will be white and extremely limp. After cooling on a drip screen, the fries are then cooked a 2nd. time at 375 degrees. It should go without saying that the oil needs to be very clean lest it smoke or catch fire. Also dirty oil produces a bad tasting fry. Again, time is variable, but about 2 minutes. Drain, salt and serve immediately.

[Blade55440]

I'm not sure on the thickness of McD's fries, but guesstimating, I'm gonna go with about a 1/4in thick stick tops. Barring the fact I didn't pay too much attention during all the videos, the fries are blanched once of course, but the final fry is done about 350 for 3 min 10 seconds... THAT much I do remember exactly. You shake the fries after 30 seconds, then don't touch till they're done. If you want them slightly limp, then I'd pull them anywhere between a max of 30, to probably 10 seconds early. Drain em, salt em, enjoy.

3oz = small
4oz = medium
6oz = large

P.s. Yes, I spent WAY too much time working there cause I was too lazy to get a better job.

Any other specs you want?