You know how you get to the bottom of a bag of potatoes & all that's left are soft, wrinkled, sprouting balls of sadness? Those are the PERFECT potatoes to make fries with. Which you can then FREEZE.
Today you're going to learn what to do with old, soft potatoes. The ones that are wrinkled and sprouting at the bottom of the bag or bin. They're not only perfectly safe to eat - they're the BEST potatoes you can use to make french fries.
Why?
Because wrinkled potatoes are wrinkled because they're drying out. And dry potatoes make the best fries.
Ergo - wrinkled, sprouting potatoes make the finest french fries around.
And today you're learning how to make EMERGENCY FROZEN FRENCH FRIES with them.
Throughout my entire high school career I ate the exact same thing for lunch. Every day. Every single day I exploded out of math class so I could get to the cafeteria to order "Large fries with gravy please".
Anyone I went to school with will be able to confirm this fact. Sometimes people would chip in (heh) to buy me more fries just to see how many I could eat.
In high school, whenever I walked anywhere, I was accompanied by an aroma-cloud of Obsession with notes of starch and smoky grease.
When I realized last week that I had half a basket of potatoes from my garden haul starting to wrinkle and sprout I knew it was time to save them for future use. If you take a look here you'll understand how it is I end up with extra potatoes.
So I made frozen french fries.
Let's do it.
It'll be this easy:
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Sprouting, wrinkled potatoes* (or low moisture potatoes)
- Fat/oil for frying
*slightly soft, wrinkled potatoes are what you want. NOT rotting, mushy potatoes.
Instructions
You can either cook these fries immediately or partially cook them and turn them into your own big bag of frozen french fries. 🍟
Grab your potatoes & peel them.
Cut fries into whatever thickness you like.
Keep them soaked under water as you go.
Drain, dry & fry one batch at a time.
Deep fry until the fries are barely turning golden.
Drain on paper towels then put in a food safe container & freeze.
THIS is how your partly cooked homemade fries (ON THE LEFT) should look compared to the raw potatoes (ON THE RIGHT). They have a dry skin that's formed, are just *starting* to turn colour but are still soft and pliable.
TO COOK FROM FROZEN
- Heat oven to 425 F.
- Drop a handful of fries (or however many you want) onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- STIR / FLIP fries and bake another 5 minutes or until done.
TO COOK IMMEDIATELY
- After partial cooking the fries at 325 F, remove from oil and set aside on paper towels.
- Increase oil temperature to 375 F, and cook fries for a second time for a few minutes until golden and crispy.
If you want to make the reallyyyyyy Perfect French Fry you can go even further by boiling the chips first, but with wrinkled potatoes you can eliminate the boiling step because the potatoes are already softish inside.
Yet another win for the the old and wrinkled. Soon we will take over the world.
The length of time you bake your fries will depend on how many fries you're cooking. Lots of fries means you'll have to increase the length of time you cook them. Just eyeball them. When they're golden and crispy they're done.
Substituting
You don't have to have access to pathetic potatoes to make great fries. Like I said, dry / low moisture potatoes are what make good fries.
There are a quite a few varieties that have these qualities.
POTATO REFERENCE TABLE
| 🥔 | Low starch / High moisture | High starch / Low moisture |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Red, New, Fingerling | Russet, Idaho, Yukon |
| Texture | Waxy & firm, keeps shape | Floury & soft, prone to crumbling |
| Cooking | Best for boiling & roasting | Best for frying, baking & mashing |
| Uses | Salads, soups, & stews | French fries, hash browns & mashed potatoes |
These come out perfectly crispy and greasy after you pull them out of the oven. They're just like you fried them. Because you did.
Why I don't use an air fryer.
And no, I don't use an air fryer for two reasons.
- I don't fry a ton of foods, but when I do, I want a grease fried food, not an air fried one.
- I don't have room to store one.
- I could spend that money on potatoes.
Lessons learned today
- 🥔 Wrinkled, soft, sprouting potatoes are still good to eat and even better for certain things like french fries.
- 🍟 Fry homemade french fries FIRST at 325 F & then again at 375 F. The first cook softens the potato and releases moisture. The second cook, browns them and makes 'em crispy.
- 🥶 Homemade fries can be FROZEN after the first cook and pulled out later to finish in the oven.
Serve with salt and a smile.
Karen I have to know how big was this ball of grease? I had a similar experience last year after going to the fair. My husband and I ate a chili cheese dog and chili cheese fries from Pinks, fried butter (this is really a churro stuffed with butter, a corn dog rolled in hash browns and deep fried(yum),Aussie chips covered in cheese and ranch(yum yum),a chocolate cover corn dog (I hated it, he loved it),fried avocado,a Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich and lots of beer. By the time we got home I was soooo sick, duh, right? I threw up what looked like an orange oil slick. Gross I know but I had to share after reading about your grease ball.
I still dream about a dish I ordered in New Orleans, French bread topped with fries covered with gravy. Extra bread on the side to wipe the plate.
MMMMM, high school cafeteria fries, and then jump in the car, head next door for a side of KFC gravy and drive to the park to eat. (Skipping 3rd period - but whatever... LOL)
If I ate french fries and gravy every day for 5 years, I'd still be working it off. My bestie ate the same thing every frickin' day of her life as well and she's still the thinnest person I know. You guys suck. Not really.. but kinda. Now I'm craving fries and gravy when I'm still trying to forgive you for turning me onto that maple syrup dressing o'heaven I now pour all over everything I eat. Ug.
Thank you for not being a dieting blog...and I am terrified of deep frying in oil, so my large fries will be consumed really fast as I'm leaving Costco... Have a great day!
Woohoo!!
Nice! This would make all the steps even more worth it - you can do the Perfect French Fry in large quantities and freeze them to experience the marvel over and over again, with way less work! Yay!
Sorry, but this post comes up a little short after the lesson we had yesterday...vaganus and all!
nice timing! I was thinking about a diy version of frozen fries.
thanks!
I ate the same thing every lunch in high school too, but not fries! I loved sloppy joes! yuck! Can't imagine liking those now! Especially "those" sloppy joes! LOL
Thanks for the trick! I do this with gnocchi (potato pasta) ...make em, freeze em on a baking sheet, then put into baggie for later! However, I never thought to do it with fries! :)
So I have this friend (who's originally from Montreal, but living in the States now with her American husband) and she is an absolute french fry fiend. True story: before I had even met her, a group of us at work - which included her husband - were deciding where to go for an after work get-together. I suggested a great barbeque place, and her husband said his wife was a vegetarian so did they have any options for her? I said I was sure they did, so off we went, with the spouses meeting us there.
Well, it turns out that EVERYTHING in that joint is cooked with meat or meat broth. I felt terrible that this poor woman had nothing to eat, but she cheerfully said "that's ok, I'll just have fries!" And proceded to eat a giant plate of them (which, BTW, are excellent at this joint). She was (and still is) a HUGE french fry fan and was perfectly happy, and we've become close friends.
AND, despite the frequent ingestion of fries (and ice cream, cause she eats that every day too), she remains pencil-thin and fit. It must be a Canadian thing :-)
Ahhhhhh, so that's how it's done. Thank you ever so much and I'll be sure to try this. What is that cookie sheet thingy that you're using? It's pretty nifty. Is that the secret for making your oven fries crispy??
Moe - https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/3-kitchen-tools-i-lovetheyre-expensive-and-theyre-worth-it/ ~ karen!
and as an aside to yesterdays post i will be really careful from now on when i use the word venting..put a whole (hole) lol..new slant on it.
11 french fries? really?
Love fries! And gravy! Add cheese curds and I'm a very happy girl.
I also like the looks of your baking pan...I thought you had a post dedicated to the best stuff in your kitchen but I can't seem to find it. Hints?
Hi Mishibear - The baking pan *is* in one of my favourite kitchen thiungs. It's a Pampered Chef Bar Pan made of stone. ~karen
i love my Pampered Chef Bar Pan!! i have the small one and middle one. love love love them
I was lucky enough to have a great fish & chip place I could walk to at my first two high schools. Fries & gravy-best lunch ever!
I can not believe you still like french fries, I usually end up getting sick when I think about a specific kinda food if that made me throw up once...
But that doesn't cover alcohol :)
For some reason I'm stuck on throwing up french fries and no recipe on earth is going to fix that. So I'll tell about the recipe I just read online for a wrap. I kid you not! I subscribe to the Daily Dish and the recipe was to spread cream cheese on a multi-grain wrap and layer on meat,cheese and lettuce. Really! I just told them in the comments section that people like my late husband who would need a recipe to make a sandwich is not the kind of person who would subscribe to get a recipe a day. LOL They really need to kick it up just a little bit. Now, back to you. You might need to knock it down a notch. Throwing up french fry grease balls is kind of TMI while giving grease ball french fry lessons. Did I ever tell you my daughter has been anorexic all her life?
Are there any owls in your family? It's possible that you're related to an owl. They're known for up-chucking pellets of undigested tidbits. Kind of like your grease ball. Only with little mouse skeletons.
Hi k, how long do you boil the chips for before freezing them?
Bex - You can't just boil the chips before freezing them. If you take a look at the post again you'll see I link to a previous method for cooking french fries. You have to follow that method up until almost the final step, and then freeze the fries. ~ karen
thanks k, I did see the links there, they just weren't working at that point. Seems to be fine now. So, ai oh, ai oh, its off to the chopping block I go :-)t
it says boil or do we fry and for how long before freezer
Yum. It's bad that I am curious about seeing that regurgitated grease though, right?
My first thought too! It's a shame she didn't know she'd be a blogger back then, or I'm sure she'd have taken a photo. (I know there was a 13th grade back then, but, like, you still had cameras, right?)