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Easy Chips


fragmeister

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Hi Raiders,

It has been so long since I posted, so long since I have been fishing. The whole COVID thing has meant that I have to be more involved in my business at a time when I was hoping to retire.

Ah well. $H1t Happens!

What I wanted to share with you may well not be any big secret, but it sure is news to this little black duck!

It's not a monumental discovery... but it matters to me and I suspect for many of you, it does too.

So here it is...

I have struggled with getting a good chip for many years.

I've tried all the techniques...

Super fresh potatoes, soaking them in salty water to draw out the moisture, double frying them, tripple frying them, using diffrent oils, different temperatures ,drying them out in my air fryer before frying, blah blah, fricken' blah.

But the results were always inconsistent. Sometimes they were great, sometimes they were soggy ( some like them like that but I don't!), sometimes they were nice and crisp but only for a few minutes. Really, should it be this difficult! All I want is a decent chip!

But then , I stumbled on a consistent approach to producing my perfect and long lasting crunchy chip...

My local chicken shop serves great chips so I asked them for help.

They sold me a 3 kg bag of pre cut frozed chips for $15 bucks and told me to chuck them in the fryer frozen and fry them in canola oil at maximum temperature until they were golden brown. ( they said my choice of peanut oil was good but too expensive for them).

In their industrial fryer, that was only 4 minutes of cooking time  but in my home fryer it was more like 8 minutes and you have to do it in small batches otherwise the frozen chips just drag the temerature down too much and that mucks up the final result.

The result is a cripsy golden brown chip that stays crispy even until it gets cold. Every single time!

No more sourcing the right potato, no more peeling, soaking, drying out and molly codling the bloody things.

I'm in heaven!

I hope this helps others in the quest for a great chip to go with the fish you are hopefully catching.

Cheers

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Strangely enough, I now do frozen crinkle cut chips in the air fryer and they come out sensational, take about 5-6minutes only, no mess, no fuss, you can tell when they are right because they "rattle" when you shake the basket. I have tried all the secret chip methods, but the air fryer does tham great.

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1 minute ago, noelm said:

Strangely enough, I now do frozen crinkle cut chips in the air fryer and they come out sensational, take about 5-6minutes only, no mess, no fuss, you can tell when they are right because they "rattle" when you shake the basket. I have tried all the secret chip methods, but the air fryer does tham great.

Yep those airfryers are great for 2 people.

 

If you want to know the secret to the best chip you will ever have is to blanch fresh cut potatoes in boiling water for 4 minutes for 1.5/2cm chips(dont over crowd), then drain & let the steam evapourate & cool.

Blanch the chips again in 160*c oil, again the key is not to overcrowd for about another 3 minutes, drain & cool.

 

Turn the fryer up to 180*c & drop the chips in for another 3 minutes

 

The worst thing with frying anything is to over crowd as the temp of the oil drops dramatically & then the item becomes soggy!

 

All in all the 10 minute perfect chips that actually take a couple of hours :whistling:

 

But hey, if you want perfection then perfection takes a bit longer :biggrinthumb:

 

 

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Tried all that @kingie chaser but it is still hit or miss in my experience.

I  think the secret is the fozen chips. It stops the inside overcooking so you can get enough crisp of the outside of the chip.

Give it a try ... its a 6 - 8 minute job straight out of the deep freezer and its as good a result ( and more consistent) as I have ever got using a blancing/double fry method.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

 

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9 minutes ago, fragmeister said:

Tried all that @kingie chaser but it is still hit or miss in my experience.

I  think the secret is the fozen chips. It stops the inside overcooking so you can get enough crisp of the outside of the chip.

Give it a try ... its a 6 - 8 minute job straight out of the deep freezer and its as good a result ( and more consistent) as I have ever got using a blancing/double fry method.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

 

All good Jim, I've only been a chef for 36 years but those fish & chips store guys might have something over me 😁

Recollecting from my childhood the best tasting chips came from the semi cooked chips being kept all day in a big hopper next to the fryer, scooped into the basket & fried in dirty oil then wrapped in the daily telegraph.

Could have been the toxic ink that gave them the extra flavour 🤭.

Actually depending on my mood I either like my chips English style which is thick & soft(like they are from being wrapped) or thin & crispy.

My preference is thick & soft.

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Organic frozen potato chips + organic (sunflower) oil in a deeper frying pan worked many times for me. Simple, quick and taste great. Still cheaper than most fast food rubbish. The only challenge is to find those chips in stock.

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On 8/28/2020 at 8:28 PM, kingie chaser said:

All good Jim, I've only been a chef for 36 years but those fish & chips store guys might have something over me 😁

Recollecting from my childhood the best tasting chips came from the semi cooked chips being kept all day in a big hopper next to the fryer, scooped into the basket & fried in dirty oil then wrapped in the daily telegraph.

Could have been the toxic ink that gave them the extra flavour 🤭.

Actually depending on my mood I either like my chips English style which is thick & soft(like they are from being wrapped) or thin & crispy.

My preference is thick & soft.

Nor worries @kingie chaser- I am sure you are a very experienced chef but I guess it all boils down ( or is that fries down!)  to individual preference. If someone gave me the best thick, soft chips in the world I probably wouldn't like them!

There are so many ways to make chips and my method only works for people who want a no fuss thin and crunchy chip that stays crunchy for a long time.

Happy for you to make me some chips one day and put them to the test!

Cheers

Jim

 

 

 

 

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On 9/2/2020 at 11:03 AM, fragmeister said:

Nor worries @kingie chaser- I am sure you are a very experienced chef but I guess it all boils down ( or is that fries down!)  to individual preference. If someone gave me the best thick, soft chips in the world I probably wouldn't like them!

There are so many ways to make chips and my method only works for people who want a no fuss thin and crunchy chip that stays crunchy for a long time.

Happy for you to make me some chips one day and put them to the test!

Cheers

Jim

 

 

 

 

Frozen chips are........................frozen chips.

 

@fragmeister like you say, I guess I could make you what I see as the best chip in the world................................blanched in boiling Evian spring water, confit in 120* duck fat then fried in 180* duck fat then dusted with black truffle salt AND then you could still say not as good as McDonalds chips?

 

I guess it come down to what your expectations are from a "chip or fry"

 

But when you have done a potato in 365 different ways you do get to know them :biggrinthumb:

 

Duck fat potato's, truffle salt with some aoli & beef jus is pretty magic but as with anything dining it depends on whole dining experience to.

 

Ive eaten potato's all over the place but eating some humble Canadian Poutine at the top of an 11,000ft snow covered mountain over looking the Canadiann Kootenays then skiing down to the village also creates a memory you cant forget.

 

I guess "the best" in something in hard to caption really 🙂

 

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Now, hop in your time machine, zip back about 50 years and get some chips from a shop, wrapped in newspaper, laced with salt and vinegar, a little hole dug in the paper and steaming hot chips, on a winters day at the beach are pretty hard to beat.

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Guest Guest123456789

There are a few things not to make at home from scratch:

chips/fries

tandoori anything

baclava

dumplings

gozleme

sausages

Yes it’s possible but too hard and/or never as good as bought.

We are fans of the McCain shoestring fries - acceptable but not great.

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11 minutes ago, flatheadluke said:

There are a few things not to make at home from scratch:

chips/fries

tandoori anything

baclava

dumplings

gozleme

sausages

Yes it’s possible but too hard and/or never as good as bought.

We are fans of the McCain shoestring fries - acceptable but not great.

Hey FHL, and there lays the challenge.

 

Its easy to buy stuff & pay the price but its actually a learning experience to try & if you fail once or twice keep trying to an end goal where at least its acceptable or maybe better.

I've learnt to do many things I thought I'd never even imagined I could attempt but took them on head first, took 2 steps forward, one back then 3 steps forward again & with the odd failure most succeeded.

Everything in your list is easy to me becasue Im a chef, its the things that arent easy to me that bring me the most joy when I inevitably succeed, and they are the most rewarding things becasue I had to do the hard yards to learn that new skill 👍

Something I think most should do on a regular basis.

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