9 Mistakes to Never Make to Get the Perfect French Fries

What's better than a portion of crispy French fries, still hot and covered in sauce? Few other dishes are as satisfying as potato sticks cooked in plenty of hot oil and for this reason French fries have become much more than a simple side dish: they are a real comfort food, a snack that can instantly cheer you up. It's no coincidence that they are one of the most popular and loved street foods in the world, so much so that every country has its own very personal variation. French fries can also be prepared at home easily, the important thing is that you follow the correct procedure: to make them perfect, in fact, you must not make these 9 mistakes that compromise the excellent success of your French fries.

1. Choosing the Wrong Potatoes

There is not just one variety of potatoes, but nature offers dozens and dozens of different potatoes: each is suitable for a certain type of recipe and cooking, which is why not all are suitable for frying. The best potatoes for making French fries are yellow-fleshed potatoes because they contain less starch than white-fleshed potatoes, which are better suited for preparations such as mashed potatoes. Yellow-fleshed potatoes, precisely because of this characteristic linked to starch, tend to "flake" less when you fry them in boiling oil.

2. Cutting the Potatoes Badly

It may seem like a trivial point, but in reality cutting the ingredients well is essential to obtain a good result with your recipe and should never be left to chance. This is even more true when it comes to French fries: to cook them to perfection you must first cut them to perfection. The correct cut is a "stick" no thicker than half a centimeter and as equal as possible to each other, so as to obtain uniform cooking and browning.

3. Not Letting Them Soak

A little-known but fundamental secret to obtaining perfect French fries is soaking, a step that, if skipped, can compromise the perfect outcome of the recipe. After cutting the potatoes, leave them immersed in very cold water for 30 minutes before cooking them: this step in fact allows the potatoes to lose part of the starch (great enemy of perfect frying) and the cold guarantees a thermal shock with the boiling oil that will allow you to obtain crispiness and browning. Always be careful to pat them dry with a sheet of absorbent paper before immersing them in the oil, however, otherwise the humidity will compromise the cooking.

4. Using the Wrong Oil for Frying

A very common mistake in preparing French fries (but not only: in frying in general) is to use the wrong type of oil. Not all oils are suitable for frying because it is a type of cooking with very high temperatures that oscillate between 320°F/160°C and 360°F/180°C and some types of oil have a much lower smoke point, that is, when they reach a certain temperature they start to cause smoke, to burn and therefore to make what you are frying unpleasant, as well as unsafe. The oils with the highest smoke points, which therefore resist better the temperatures suitable for frying, are peanut oil and extra virgin olive oil: both are suitable, the only difference is in knowing why the first has a more neutral flavor, while the second gives a very strong taste.

5. Using Too Little Oil

Speaking of oil, there is another rule for perfect frying that concerns it: with oil, when frying, you have to be generous. First of all, the oil must be poured into a large pan and there must be enough to cover the chips so much that they float (contact with the bottom of the pan ruins flavor and consistency), thus allowing for uniform and golden cooking. Furthermore, oil is precisely the element that acts as a means of transferring heat, so an adequate amount means that the chips will be cooked quickly. Finally, an abundant amount of oil helps maintain a constant temperature during frying, avoiding sudden changes that could ruin the chips.

6. Not Bringing the Oil to The Right Temperature

The temperature of the oil is crucial for the success of the French fries: if the oil is too cold the fries will absorb too much and become greasy and soft, if it is too hot, however, they risk burning on the outside while remaining raw on the inside. The ideal temperature for frying fries is between 350°F/175°C and 375°F/190°C and, if you want to be really precise and get the perfect frying, it is best to check it using a kitchen thermometer, so as to ensure that it never goes below or above these parameters.

7. Overloading the Pan

It's a mistake we've all made at least once, that of frying all the chips in a pan at once, but in reality this very gesture made to avoid spending too much time in front of the stove could compromise the cooking of your chips. Too many pieces at once, in fact, end up lowering the temperature of the oil causing uneven cooking, while cooking small quantities at a time ensures that each piece can fry evenly and become crispy. Frying this way certainly takes longer, but the final result will be better: try it and believe it!

8. Ignoring a Double Fry

An expert trick, which many still don't know, is to fry the chips twice instead of just once: double cooking, if done correctly, allows you to obtain chips that are perfectly creamy on the inside but very crunchy on the outside. How should you proceed? It's easy: start with the first cooking, keeping the temperature slightly lower than that required for frying, 300°F/150°C for about 6-8 minutes, then drain the chips, let them rest on absorbent paper to eliminate the excess fat and then dip them back into the oil a little at a time, heating it this time to 355-375°F/180-190°C. A couple of minutes of cooking is enough, until an inviting crust forms, then drain on absorbent paper and let them rest again before salting.

9. Salting Without Waiting The Resting Time Out

We have come to talk about the last fundamental step before you can finally enjoy your French fries: the salting moment, a practice that may seem obvious to you but which in reality is less so than you imagine and which, if done at the wrong time, could ruin the French fries right at the last minute. For optimal results, in fact, the French fries should not be salted immediately after you remove them from the pan, they should instead rest for a couple of minutes on absorbent paper, so as to lose the excess oil and cool slightly. In this way they will maintain their crunchiness when you add the salt and will not become soggy.