What is the Best Oil for Frying Frozen French Fries?
Big fan of frozen french fries? I can relate. I adore french fries.
And yet, I wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant each time I crave them.
I would like to start making them at home, just about the way I like them. I feel that many people do not take the trouble to slice a potato to make french fries. Fully understanding how to produce tasty diner-type fries at home is totally worth it.
Nearly everybody acknowledges that the best fries from the interior are smooth and are golden and crisp on the outside. The easiest way is to purchase frozen fries sold in the supermarket. Get around cooking a bowl of fries for yourself or your family. Paired with your preferred side dish, this great taste of crispness will make everyone happy. But if you don’t cook it properly, you might spoil the fries as it becomes too soggy.
Whenever it is the occasion to make a plate, simply carry out the bag from the freezer and start frying. I realize how not everybody in the household has a deep fryer. So, I will provide you with a complete guide on how to make the perfect french fries at home using your all-time favourite: Frozen french fries.
Best Oil to Fry Frozen French Fries
Ever wondered which is the best oil to fry frozen french fries? Everybody enjoys a plateful of hot, yummy french fries. Keep reading to find out how to make the best french fries you have ever made!
The oil you use should not change the flavour and aroma of the fries. It should also be able to withstand heat. This implies that you would have to use oil with an elevated flashpoint. It means that the oil doesn’t start breaking down at a deep fryer’s high enough temperature. It should not give out too much smoke, either.
However, olive oil or something unrefined does have a low smoke point because it can burn before it reaches the optimum temp that gives you a golden-ish colour.
Harold McGee wrote, “The smoke point limit the maximum useful cooking temperature of cooking fats. It is the characteristic temperature at which a fat breaks down into visible gaseous products and depends on the initial free fatty acid content of the fat: the lower the free fatty acid content, the more stable the fat, and the higher the smoke point.,” in his book, ‘On Food and Cooking’.
Do not use unclarified butter as it can start releasing dampness which can cause your fries to become soggy. Use a medium-high flame while frying. If you wish, you could go for heavily discounted oils because deep fryers use a lot of product. As you are likely to use your deep fryer for several food products, these oils are also going to fit well on pretty much everything you cook.
These are some oils you could use, which better match the requirement:
- Canola oil
- Refined peanut oil
- Sunflower oil
- Corn oil
All of these oils have a smoke level of more than four hundred degrees and surely does not trigger the smoke detector. These are relatively mild in flavour, too. Flavour is also quite important to take into account while selecting an oil because they can alter the unique flavour of a dish fully.
For starters, the soybean has an elevated flavour transfer on meals. On the other hand, canola oil has far less transfer of flavour, but it has a very distinctive smell whilst frying. All these things contribute to making a rather tricky decision so consciously think about it all over.
How Long Does it Take to Fry Frozen French Fries?
Now, that you know which types of oils to use, the next question is, “How long should I fry those french fries?”
- First off, for frying frozen french fries, heat the oil for around 350 degrees.
- Fry on for three to five minutes until its nice and crispy. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t let it to cook for too long! While you’re cooking frozen french fries, there’s no reason to double fry them.
- Because most frozen fries are semi-cooked, you normally do not have to invest too much time on them. Simply observe and turn them for the good golden brown colour to maintain a complete appearance around the fries.
- Cautiously take the fries out from the oil utilizing a slotted metal spoon.
- Place it onto a tray lined with few absorbent papers.
- Instantly season to taste, with salt and start serving.
Follow these steps if you wish to make your fries from a potato from scratch. If you’ve been preparing fries from start to finish, you would always want to cook them twice. After the preps are completed, you should first fry at a lower temperature once.
Make sure to get them smooth, but not brown. Drain the excess oil on absorbent paper towels. Then, raise the temperature to 375 degrees after removing from the oil and cook for about four minutes.
How Do I Fry My Frozen French Fries?
You might want to be certain that your fries do not contain huge pieces of frozen chunks on them. That will splatter the heated oil as you put the fries in. But you wouldn’t want to heat your frozen fries until you use your deep fryer, either.
Maintaining them frozen till frying assures that the fry is enclosed in the cooking process. Did you know that this guarantees a crisper fry? Most importantly, thawing your fries can lead to excess oil absorption, and eventually, make the french fries mushier.
What is an Air Fryer? Can I use it to cook my Frozen French Fries?
You might have certainly heard about an air fryer. It’s a pretty modern gadget that utilizes extremely hot air circulation to fry foods with a tiny quantity of oil. Air fryers were being licensed for the first time in 2005, but related machines have always been on the marketplace ever since the late 1980s. These were being designed as a way to mimic quick frying without any of the fat and calories that emerge via hot oil cooking.
Air fryers function by circulating heated air over the foods you have sprinkled or poured a little small amount of oil onto. When the air moves, the oil spreads, creating a crunchy, crispy finish on everything you eat.
You don’t really fry something, but thanks to the continuous movement of heated air, you can produce a crispy surface by the same kind of accelerated elimination of moisture that happens in frying. There are many different models, with distinct processes available on the market.
Obviously, it is not the same as a deep fryer. But it is a perfect way to have some sort of crisp food while slashing calorie intake in the meantime. Compared to a deep fryer, it could always be cleaned up incredibly quickly. It does not mess the place up as a deep fryer does.
Advantages of Using an Air Fryer
The air fryers provide certain nutritional advantages if used correctly.
Greater consumption of fried foods has strong ties to elevated levels of overweight. It is because deeply fried foods happen to be rich in fat and calories. The shift from deep-fried foods to air-fried foods and the elimination in daily consumption in fatty oils will help with weight reduction.
Frying food in oil can induce the production of hazardous chemicals, like acrylamide. This substance occurs in some items, such as deep-frying, during high-heat cooking techniques. Through transitioning to air frying, individuals may reduce the possibility of acrylamide in their food.
Deep-frying cooking requires a big container full of steaming hot oil to be cooked. That can cause a danger to security. There is no chance of leaking, splattering, or unintentionally handling hot oil when air fryers get heated. You should cautiously use frying equipment and obey directions to promote health.
How do you Prolong the Lifetime of your Oil?
Your house will probably have some inactive times where there’s not much frying. During these idle times, do not have the oil adjusted to preparation heat.
If you have an AutoFry fryer, the device has a standby key that can be used to shut down the heat and lower the temp to 300°. That’s warm enough to make it simple and convenient to heat the oil back to the frying temp, but also neat enough to prolong the life of the oil.
Some Quick Frying Tips to Make Your Life Easier
Unnecessary Ice Formation
I suggest frying frozen, whenever appropriate, but it is essential that you knock off all the significant or unnecessary ice formation from the frozen substance before placing it into the hot oil. If you put the fries in when it’s ice-covered, you’ll find yourself having a lot of trouble. Practically, when you’re using a completely open frying pan, it might lead to burnt fingers.
Filter Your Oil
Oil filtration is a critical step in frying which is always ignored or performed extremely rarely. Not refining the oil adds to the reduced lifetime of oil and poor taste of food. But none of that is useful for you, so make an excellent routine of cleaning oil every day. No matter how you find the time, the trick is to just do it every day. And maybe even multiple times a day if you fry on a large scale.
Filtering oil should keep the food smelling great and enhance the quality of your oil. Oil breaks down at a much higher pace when it is dirty.
You’ll have a longer life cycle of your oil by keeping it cleaner and also save costs of purchasing fresh oil throughout the course.
Weekly Cleanup
When you filter oil every day, you could be persuaded to miss a more detailed weekly washing, but you shouldn’t. If you expect the oil to last long term, daily maintenance practices need to be followed, along with routine thorough cleaning. This includes washing up the oil container, replacing the used oil, and tidying up any filth or smudge that might have accumulated during the week.
Replace the Dirty Oil
You will also want to start changing the oil while you are going through your regular washing. The oil has to be replaced if:
- Food tends to appear or smell burned or dry
- You see a charred or faint blue haze emerging from the fryer
- The finishing on your meal is darkened or has burned marks
Which Type of Potato Should You Use?
If you are going to make your french fries from scratch, potatoes containing higher starch levels such as Idaho aka Russet potatoes are ideally suited. This type of potato is denser, hence they contain a minimum quantity of moisture.
Ignore waxy potatoes, which involve those with red skins to make french fries. These have too much water. When you cook them, they will eventually hollow out, as the water will dry up.
Tips to Make Crispy Frozen French Fries
- One of the secrets to perfect French fries is to keep them frozen until frying. The other is to make sure that the oil is sufficiently hot.
- Use a medium-high flame while preparing.
- Be certain you don’t put too much fries to the pot because congesting the pan will give you lower than ideal cooking performance.
- Do not add seasoning them before actually frying, or while frying. If you’ve been seasoning them previously, the salt will absorb moisture that we don’t like and the fries could stick in the pot. If you are adding salt during the frying process, you are not going to be able to save the oil to make anything else.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we addressed the query regarding the right oil for cooking frozen french fries. It’s not like every oil is the same.
Each oil has its own specific taste and fixed flashpoint, which will potentially influence your cooking.
I provided you with a detailed review of deep fryers and frozen french fries in this section.
We also focused on how to prepare crispy frozen fries, what oils offer the best flavour, air fryers and how to deeply fry frozen fried fries.