want fries with that?

Kathy and I have decided to celebrate Bastille day by making some genuine French fries, even though we knew they were mainly a Belgian thing, or maybe not https://delishably.com/vegetable-dishes/Is-it-French-Fries-or-Belgian-Frites.   We acquired the genuine McDonald’s recipe https://www.food.com/recipe/mc-donalds-classic’french-fries-copycat-433745, and had the necessary beef tallow on hand (secret ingredient) https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1384.  Prior to 1990, all McDonald’s  fries were fried exclusively in beef tallow.  If you’ve noticed a drop off in quality since then, there’s your explanation.  But in the Harbal kitchen, we know no such boundaries!  A couple days back, we bought a couple Russet potatoes, peeled them, and ran them through the mandoline, a French slicing contraption Kathy bought me a couple years ago which is tailor made for this duty.  The potatoes had to be brined, then frozen, which prevented us from eating them on “National French Fry Day”, which our WRCJ DJ friend Dave Wagner had proclaimed Tuesday morning.  But the waiting was worth it.  All my remaining stock of tallow went into the pot, knowing it could be strained and reused up to ten times.  Many more fries to come.  Then, after my candy thermometer registered 375⁰ as the recipe specified, we danced in half of the 6 oz of potatoes we had frozen.  We eagerly watched them turn brown, removed them to a colander, then did the same with the rest.  They didn’t get to cool very long before we began snacking and oh my!  These were McDonald’s fries on steroids!   Brown, crisp, and absolutely exquisite!  This is a dangerous thing we’ve discovered.  It is easy to procure and prepare Russets for this fat bath, which we seem to have the capacity to replenish many times.  How many more meals will we have when we ask ourselves “do you want fries with that?”?

fries awaiting consumption.  The cookie tray was just someplace to rest ,and had nothing to do with their cooking.