Well OT - DIY chips (as in potatoes cut up into chunks and fried)

[David]

Occasionally I weaken and have some fried potatoes (commonly known as chips in the UK).

I have been buying frozen chips, but usually they have extra stuff on them so that they also work as oven chips. Which tends to crud up the oil after a time.

I recently tried the old fashioned way. Peel potatoes. Cut into chips. Fry part way then drain, cool, freeze. Take out of the freezer and lob (carefully) into the chip pan.

These turned out a bit more like traditional hand cut chips cooked from fresh.

I looked at pricing, which is where my DIY speculation came in.

From Iceland:

Straight cut chips (1.25 kg bag) £0.80/kilo White potatoes (2.5 kg bag) £0.60/kilo

Once you have peeled the potatoes (guess 10% loss of weight) the prices are so close that it hardly seems worth the effort of peeling, chipping, and part cooking.

Although, ultimately, taste may win out. Again I assume that the frozen chips use the cheapest potatoes and some varieties may give a better all round chipping experience.

On the gripping hand chip shops sell a big portion of chips for not very much, so I must buy a (large?) portion of chips and then weigh it to see how it compares. Buying pre-fried chips for freezing might be an interesting option.

I am working on the assumption that chip shops buy in bulk (either pre peeled and cut or they peel and cut using mechanisation on site) which should bring the up front cost down.

Then again I could just have a curry.

Cheers

Dave R

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

David expressed precisely :

Why peel?

Unless their is a good reason to, we just wash chip a cook. Unpeeled is better for you and offers more flavour. The goodness is close to the skin too, so leave it on if you can.

Standard portion of chips round here I think £1.50. The last sack full of spuds we bought around £12 delivered to our gate, but you need to use a lot, to make a sack worthwhile, though it does avoid having to carry them from the supermarket.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

David explained on 14/12/2021 :

Not sure they will taste very nice. I have tried part frying and freezing, out of curiosity and that seems to work OK. In fact I always part fry. I am cooking chips for dinner, for when Wendy gets home a lottle after 6pm. The chips will go on around 5:30, be part fried, stood to drain and cool, then put back on around 5:50 for finalising.

Fully cooked chips never reheat and taste edible.

[alan_m]

I've found to re-heat fully cooked chips pre-heat an oven to 220C and and then remove the chips just before they get to crispy.

[alan_m]

Yes - there are a few varieties of potato suitable for chips.

There are times of the year where the chips in fish and chip shops are not too good. Old season potatoes of the right type running out and earlier new season potatoes not the best for chip making.

Both my local fish and chip shops mechanically peel and chip on site but charge £2 for a medium portion and £2.50 for large portion

[The Natural Philosopher]

I was in Tescos and bought some of their french fries - normally I buy Waitrose essential.

I threw them away . No taste compared to waitrose

There are a lot of high yield tasteless cheap spuds out there, but the difference to a really decent spud is worth the increase.

[Tim Lamb]

There is a database:-)

[Tim Lamb]

In message <Z+XdfiHmLNuhFw+ [e-mail]>, Tim Lamb [e-mail]> writes

Oops underscores not welcome:-)

[Andy Burns]

Needs a bigger change that the underscore

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hmm. We?re having trouble finding that site.

We can?t connect to the server at

a better place to go.

[williamwright]

Oh no! Horrible!

Bill

[williamwright]

Use Maris Piper or King Edwards. Use really big spuds (more economical). Peel. Cut chips 15x15mm approx. Cook at 100C for 30 minutes or until a chip falls into two if lifted at a central point. Second fry at 190C until brown and crispy; expect it to take about 60 secs. Chips should be very light and should rustle when tossed.

The fryer should be easily big enough to hold the chips.

Bill

[ARW]

The potatoes go into what is often called a rumbler.

is a top of the market one. Some are connected to a water supply and are located next to a drain so all you have to do is turn the tap on and press the ON button (and put potatoes in it)

As a rumbler just rubs away the skin due to friction with the other potatoes you lose a lot less than 10% of the potatoes mass.

A lot of pubs that do proper food use them. A pub I do work for has the potatoes rumbled in the morning and left in buckets of water until needed and are cut by hand - by the catering assistant not the chef.

Chip shops do use potato chippers after the rumbler process and they leave the chips in buckets of water.

Standing the chips or potatoes in water removes the starch and makes for a better chip.

Bulk buying and trade prices do bring the purchase cost down.

[Scribbles]

That awoke a long-buried memory. My grandparents kept a butchers shop in a converted semi detached house. They lived over the shop. Next door, in a similar conversion, was a chip shop. My sister and I would get sent to stay with the grandparents during school half terms and we always resented the way we were woken 6 days a week at 6am when the rumbler started up and the whole building shook.. Oddly, it never stopped us wanting chips for lunch.

By the way, there is one essential item missing from all these helpful hints and tips. Your chip pan/fryer should be one third full of beef dripping. Accept no substitute.

[Tim Lamb]

Indeed! A while since I was there:-)

[lkpo]

Harry Bloomfield; Esq. [e-mail]> wrote

Gives a better result. I currently peel and dip whole potatoes of the right size, dip them in a bowl of olive oil and roast them in the digital air fryer and have one with each meal. Peeled gives a crisper outside to the potato.

With other meals like steak I microwave the unpeeled potato, cut it mostly in half and put a chunk of marg in the slice.

Yes, but doesn't have the same crisp outer.

I don't use enough of them for that to work, normally one medium sized spud per meal, one person and only one cooked meal a day.

[Brian]

We used ?oven chips? for years - to avoid the fat - but hardly ever ate them as they tasted artificial. I find frozen chips always do, even if you fry them. I doubt if we had them once a month.

(On the plus side, it made us appreciate a ?naughty? bag of chips ( or fish and chips) by the sea taste better now and then.)

We now have an air fryer- really a miniature fan oven, which blows hot air over the contents of the small cooking chamber. Being small, it is more effective that even a fan oven.

It produces very good chips, from real potatoes, with just a trace of oil. Of course it does other things. Chicken drumsticks are a favourite, baked potatoes, ??

I don?t always peel the potatoes. If the skins are ok, a good wash is enough, and cut them for either ?steak chips? or wedges - sometimes coating with a herb mix before cooking.

[RJH]

+1 on the air fryer for chips - parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes, then blast lightly oiled for 10 or so. Also good for reheating baked potatoes, however unlikely that sounds.

[williamwright]

Also removes sugars. These can caramelise during the second fry and spoil crispness.

Bill

[williamwright]

I always bake about four to save leccy, eat one, freeze the others. Reheat in the micro. V nice.

Bill