KitchenWise by Shirley O. Corriher

Author:Shirley O. Corriher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2020-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

Rinsed, Not Rinsed, Chill or Ice Water Soak, Wet or Dry?

Early-harvested potatoes have a higher starch content and a lot of starch on the surface from slicing. It is the natural reducing sugars and proteins in potatoes that brown. So, rinsing off this starchy coating can enhance browning.

For very crisp fries, the Idaho Potato Commission recommends chilling the potatoes for up to 2 hours before cooking.

Drying the surface of the fries is a great help in several ways. First, the evaporating water cools the cooking fat and requires a longer time for it to come back up to cooking temperature. This will eventually require a longer cooking time and mean more fat absorption.

Water also reacts with the cooking fat, forming contaminates that lower the smoke point of the fat.

Meanwhile, as the starch granules get hot, they absorb moisture and swell. With perfect conditions, the starch on the surface absorbs water from the interior and swells to seal the surface, while the interior starch absorbs the rest of the water, producing a crisp, dry surface and a dry, non-soggy interior.

Water on the surface can mess things up. It will take longer for the surface starch to absorb all this water and get a dry surface that seals.

A chef or caterer who has a busy day ahead may cut potatoes for french fries, place them in a large container of ice water, and store them in the walk-in refrigerator overnight. The next day, when these potatoes are fried, they get very dark and look done but are raw in the center. These potatoes fried perfectly the day before. What happened?

When potatoes (and a number of other starchy vegetables) stay chilled for a period of time, some of the starch breaks down into sugar. Now these higher-sugar-content potatoes brown much faster. The sugar and protein content, along with the acidity, determine how fast a food will brown. If left at room temperature for a day or so, the sugars will join back together to form starch. If you have stored whole potatoes at a cool temperature, you may want to leave them at room temperature a day before frying them.

Cooks can use this little bit of science to make better low-fat oven fries. One of the problems with making fake french fries by roasting potato strips in the oven is that they do not get very brown. If you soak cut potatoes in ice water in the refrigerator overnight (maybe even add a little sugar to the water), steam them for a few minutes to partially cook them, then toss them in something alkaline (less acidic) like slightly old egg whites (lightly beaten) and sprinkle them generously with herbs, cayenne, salt, pepper, and a small amount of Parmesan, these potatoes will brown nicely in a hot oven. Be generous with the seasonings. Remember, one of the great problems with low-fat cookery is lack of flavor.

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