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.
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.
Don't fry fresh-cut potatoes
Soaking peeled, washed, and cut fries in cold water overnight removes excess potato starch, which prevents fries from sticking together and helps achieve maximum crispness.
How long do you soak the potatoes before frying: At least 30 minutes, in cold (with ice) water. We have let the potatoes soak for several hours, and still had perfect fries when we cooked them. Just be sure to keep them cold (in the refrigerator) if soaking for more than 30 minutes.
Soaking Potatoes
The additional step of allowing the peeled, washed and cut potatoes to soak in cold water removes excess potato starch from the outside. This will help with the crisping up of the potatoes when they bake or roast.
Or, to put it another way, potatoes added to boiling water cook unevenly. If, on the other hand, you place potatoes in a pot of cold water, the water and potatoes heat up together, and the potatoes cook evenly inside and out.
Remove the potatoes from the soaking water, place them in a towel and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Allow the water to rest for about 30 minutes so the starch settles. Pour the water out of the bowl, leaving the starch at the bottom of the bowl. Combine the starch and potatoes just before cooking.
Throw them in a pot or large bowl and cover them with cold water, then let them soak for at least two or three hours. Soaking the sliced potatoes is the fundamental first step of making proper french fries.
Fries made from peeled potatoes should be chilled after cutting in cold water for 30 minutes to 2 hours before frying to ensure maximum crispiness. Add citrus acid or vinegar to the water solution to prevent darkening. Spin-dry before frying to avoid spattering and reduce fat absorption. Fresh fries are best blanched.
A: Chilling the water or adding ice is a method that helps the cells seal up and makes for a crisper fry when blanched. Warm or room temp water is better for leaching the starches, some operators or manufacturers actually blanch (or boil) the potatoes in water to remove excess starches.
I wouldn't bother doing potatoes from the raw state, without soaking. It will take about a half an hour and the texture won't be nearly as rewarding. They just don't get very crispy without that cold soak.
Dry the potatoes: It is important to dry your potatoes before frying them to prevent spattering. Use a clean towel to pat them dry on a sheet pan or put them into a salad dryer to remove the excess moisture. If you store the potatoes uncovered in your cooler overnight, this will help to further dry them out.
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.
Soaking the sliced potatoes in water helps to draw out some of the starch from the middle of the potato, resulting in a sturdier, crispier French fry.
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.
If your homemade fried potatoes are soggy rather than the crispy potatoes you crave, or raw rather than tender, or even burnt rather than golden brown you are probably doing (or not doing) one of the following: You're using the wrong oil. You're using very starchy potatoes and not soaking to remove some of the starch.
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.
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.
Soggy fries have usually either been cooked in oil that isn't hot enough, or were cooked in too large a batch, overcrowding the pan and reducing the heat. The secret to getting tasty French fries that are crisp on the outside and nice and fluffy on the inside is to fry them twice.
The excess potato starch that forms when potatoes are peeled and sliced must be rinsed off the chips with water. If not, the surface starch will block the evaporation of moisture from the potato and lead to mushy, dark brown chips.
Starch rich potatoes usually turn soft and crumbly, while frying or baking. So, if you are making delicacies wherein you want the potatoes to be crispy and crunchy, then removing starch is the best way to keep your wafers, fries, crispy potatoes, hash browns crisp and delicious.
In the presence of water, amylose molecules break down, whereas amylopectin molecules, another type of starch in potatoes, remain compact. So during washing and soaking, amylose is what we are removing. If excess amylose is not removed, the potatoes may be cooked unevenly.
Place the potatoes in a bowl or airtight container and cover completely with cold water, then store in the refrigerator. This technique works best with larger varieties, such as russets, Yukon gold, and sweet potatoes. Once it's time to cook with the potatoes, drain and rinse again with cold water.
It's best to parboil the potatoes first before pan frying to get cooked tender inside. In my experience, not boiling the potatoes first will result in not well cooked inside but crispy outer potatoes. Unless you are cutting the potatoes extra thin (which makes it like potatoes crips) then it's best to boil first.