By Published Aug. 28, 2023.
This is Technique #65 from our 100 Techniques Every Home Cook Can Master.
Each technique is broken into three sections: why it works, key steps, and recipes that use it. Learn these recipe building blocks and you'll be set up for a lifetime of cooking success.
Crispy, salt-flecked, and delectable, deep-fried vegetables are hard to resist. Especially french fries: Having the ability to serve homemade fries with your burgers is a culinary coup. But this can be a challenge to pull off at home.
While everyone loves fried foods, cooking them is quite another story. Submerging food in large quantities of boiling-hot oil results in dangerous and messy splatters.
Plus, with typical recipes for french fries, you’re asked to deep-fry them twice: the first time at a lower temperature to evaporate some water and form a thin crust, and then a second time at a higher temperature to finish cooking and browning them.
No wonder frozen bags of fries are so popular.
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But there is a way to make fantastic french fries from scratch without a double-fried kitchen disaster. Our nontraditional technique starts with cold oil; that is, oil straight from the cupboard. A deep pot, with oil and vegetables inside, is set over high heat; as the oil heats, the food slowly softens and cooks through, browning and crisping up at the end as the oil eventually reaches a boil.
This cooking method is much easier, requiring less oil and little temperature monitoring. And it minimizes mess and scary splattering. Another bonus with this technique is that, because you use low-starch Yukon Gold potatoes, it allows you to do away with presoaking the potatoes in water to remove excess starch.
This approach isn’t just for potatoes, though. Fried Brussels sprouts are (well, almost) as delicious as french fries. But with their high moisture content, they’re a prime candidate for throwing angry, splattery fits when submerged into hot frying oil.
Sure enough, starting them in cold oil calms them right down. If you’ve ever roasted Brussels sprouts, you know they can handle a lot of color, so an extended frying time browns and crisps them up beautifully.
Vegetables fried using the cold-start method spend more time in the oil than when using the more traditional frying method, but they don’t turn out greasier—they are actually lower in fat. As the veggies cook, they lose surface moisture, which is replaced by oil. Because the cold start cooks them more gently, less moisture is lost, and less oil is absorbed during frying.
Not only does this technique deliver restaurant-quality fries, it also requires less oil and little temperature monitoring. Rather than gingerly adding presoaked potatoes to boiling oil and flinching at any skin-burning splatter, you can easily heap your ingredients into the pot and start the burner. See our step-by-step guide below for more details.
Cut potatoes into 1⁄4-inch by 1⁄4-inch sticks.
Stir together potatoes and oil in large Dutch oven. Place on stove, turn heat to high, and cook until oil reaches rolling boil.
Continue to cook, without stirring, until potatoes are starting to turn golden and exteriors are crisp.
Stir potatoes with tongs and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp.
Transfer fries to paper bag to drain. Season with salt.
Now that you know the benefits to frying in cold oil, you can make these recipes that employ the technique. Avoid the mess, dangerous splatter and the need to continually monitor your stove, and end up with better homemade fries.
Ready to learn another technique? Choose from our list of 100 Techniques Every Home Cook Can Master.
