He uses Idaho potatoes, which the cooks peel, soak in refrigerated water for eight hours, cut into long thin sticks and soak for eight hours more before frying. The soaking, Mr. Nasr said, is the secret to the crisp texture of the fries. It draws out the starch, making them more rigid and less likely to stick together.
Place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak, 2 to 3 hours. (You can also stick them in the fridge and let them soak overnight.) When you're ready to make the fries, drain off the water and lay the potatoes on 2 baking sheets lined with paper towels.
If you use Russets you definitely want to soak them in water before frying because they have a high starch content but they will be crispier overall. Peanut oil or any light vegetable oil is necessary to make the best fried potatoes with the crispy crust you're looking for.
Soak the potato strips in water with a dash of apple cider vinegar. Soaking the potatoes draws starch to the exterior of the potato. This prevents fries from sticking together and helps them get crispy. Vinegar delays potatoes from turning brown and also speeds up the starch extraction.
Potatoes will be firmer and crispier if you soak them in salt water before frying or cooking. Although it may seem like an extra step, this process will help you prepare the potatoes in advance.
The reason is to prevent the potatoes exposure to air, which causes dehydration, oxidation, and discoloration. Immersing cut potatoes will also help rinse off excess starch.
The acidity of the vinegar holds the potatoes together so they don't get mushy and fall apart while boiling.
The best potatoes for French fries are soaked in a sugar solution before frying. The sugar solution has something to do with the carbohydrates and prevents the potatoes from soaking up a lot of grease, so they get crunchy.
Peel and rinse the potatoes, then cut them into sticks by cutting the potato in four or five vertical pieces, then cutting each piece into sticks. Place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water, then allow them to soak for two or three hours.
Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.
Give them a cold water bath: Once your potatoes are chopped, toss them into a large bowl. Then cover the potatoes completely with cold water and let them soak for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight). This will help to rinse off the excess starch and help the potatoes crisp up beautifully in the oven.
I peeled the potatoes and soaked them in water for eight hours, then cut and soaked them for eight hours longer. Before frying them, I laid them out on dish towels and let them dry completely. (This is important to prevent oil from bubbling up when the potatoes are dropped in.)
Fill a large bowl with cold water and stir in 2 tablespoons of salt. Place the sliced potatoes in the salt water and let them soak for 15 to 30 minutes. This will help them bake up crispier. When the potatoes are done soaking, drain them, and dry very well with a towel.
For deep fried potatoes, you don't have to boil the potatoes first. You can deep fry from raw. You will need to add water in the oil (not hot oil) to guarantee the inside cooks before the skin crisp.
Unless a battered fry, they are not adding in salt during the process. I recommend not salting the fries till they come out of the fryer and even then, waiting for an order before salting as the fries can turn limp prematurely if salted too soon.
They can soak longer, but you'll need to keep them in the fridge while they soak. Don't soak for longer than 3 hours.
Soak the potato slices in a bowl full of cold water and a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Be sure the water completely covers the potatoes. Let the potatoes soak for at least 30 minutes.
Soaking the potatoes after they're cut draws out some of the starch which is naturally present in potatoes. This will result in a crispier fry. A thirty minute soak in cold water does the trick but you may soak them longer if you want.
(If you decide to try soaking the raw potatoes anyway, they can be soaked in water in the refrigerator for several hours without any safety concerns. Potatoes can be soaked even overnight as long as they are in the refrigerator.)
The potato in the salt water shrinks because water moves from the potato into the more concentrated salt water. In contrast, water moves from the less concentrated distilled water into the potato causing it to expand.
You should soak potatoes in salt water before cooking, especially if you are making French fries or baked potatoes, or when you are preparing potatoes ahead of time. Soaking potatoes helps to draw out water and remove excess starch, giving you firmer potatoes when cooked.
The incoming water in the potato cells pushes on the cell walls and makes the cells bigger. As a result, the whole potato strip gets bigger. The opposite is the case in the higher concentrated salt solutions.
Some experts recommend adding vinegar to the oil to slow the breakdown of pectin (the polysaccharide that helps a potato keep its structure intact). Try as you might, though, industrial fryers will nearly always beat out whatever equipment you've got at home.
Soaking the sliced potatoes in cold water is one of the main steps to prepare perfect French Fries. The cold water removes the starch present outside the potatoes so that you get perfectly crispy fries.
The main reasons to cut the potatoes and pre-soak in water are: To allow the excess starches and sugars to be removed from the outer surface of the fry strips AND to keep the potatoes from browning prematurely from exposure to air. Covering in water helps the potato from turning a dark color.