I fondly remember those fries as a kid, and the deep-fried hot apple pies. Ah well, honestly for the best: we’d be fatter than we already are if those babies were still around.
How does olive oil work for fries? I’ve never tried it myself but I’ve heard speculation that the reason the fries are always so good at gyro places is that they use olive oil.
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You should fry twice. First, to blanch and drive moisture from the outer layer of the cut potatoes. Then, drain them, air cool them on a rack or colander, and then go again later to the desired crispiness. This way, you can use virtually any oil.
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Yup. Also, olive oil is fairly neutral to the taste, avocado oil is pretty neutral but less so, peanut oil flavors it very slightly but can be dangerous to anyone with peanut allergies, and palm oil has a mild taste reminiscent of a bland carrot or squash. Personally, I recommend olive oil or avocado oil, as their fairly neutral and less unhealthy than the alternatives, and much less unhealthy than vegetable or canola oil. Also, olive oil tends to be less expensive and much more sustainable agriculturally than avocado.
Oh, and grab a deep fry thermometer for around ten bucks. Here’s the one I use, but any will do.
And of course, be extremely careful with hands near heated oil.
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I feel you, but the French have been making frites a helluva lot longer than McDonald’s has been in business, and anyone who thinks they weren’t frying them in animal products doesn’t know very much about french cooking.
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I’ll also add that olive oil has a low smoke point, but avocado and peanut oil have a higher smoke point. Oils with a lower smoke point are more dangerous and you have to watch them more carefully. Higher smoke point oils are more forgiving.
One more note: personally, I always fry outside. Safety is the chief concern. But there is another. The effervescence that comes with the frying process makes tons of oil droplets that spatter the immediate stove area, but also the walls and ceiling, and what’s more, they become airborne, saturating the environment with an oily frying smell and coating everything in your house. Add to that a fish flavor, if you’re frying fish with your chips. After I had to sleep on a fish pillow one night, in my fish bed with fish sheets and fish pajamas, I realized.
So, I never fry indoors anymore, even with the range hood full blast. I do it in the back yard next to the BBQ. I can make a mess, have an accident, fry stinky stuff… and it’s no big deal.
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Air fryers and air fry functions of toaster ovens are just convection ovens on steroids. The counter top air fryers just use a proportionally larger (and faster) heating element, and a much faster fan than most home convection ovens. So those companies making convection toaster ovens basically just had to juice up the fan/airflow and boom they had air fry functions.
I was gifted a counter top air fryer and use it occasionally, French fries being one of the things it very good at (wings is another one, and any vegetable especially brussels sprouts). But they’ve got really limited capacities and the form factor is really inconvenient. Basically by mimicking deep fryers they made themselves a lot less useful, though it seems to have been key in selling them in the US. In Europe and Asia damn near identical, but more practically shaped, devices are sold as compact counter top ovens.
I also have one of those Breville Smart Ovens, a toaster oven with a convection setting. We basically don’t use the thing without the convection on, and we use the damn thing almost daily even though we have 2 full sized ovens. The convection setting is fairly weak as these things go. Basically just gets enough air moving to make that toaster oven cook like a full sized oven. Which is exactly the magic trick a toaster oven needs to be the greatest thing ever.
Thing’s getting a little hinky, the controls are on the fritz. If I can’t fix it up it’s probably getting replaced with the newer air frying branded one, and the air fryer is going in the trash. Mostly because we use the thing constantly, and the convection setting constantly. Better convection will be real useful, especially in an oven shape instead of some sort of cockamamie basket. The changes also apparently make it a capable dehydrator.
So just my 2 cents. You’d probably barely use an air fryer, after a while anyway. But if you got the toaster oven with an air fry button you’d use it a lot more than you think.
But I don’t think it would be worth it unless you already need a new toaster oven and/or your current toaster oven doesn’t have a convection setting.
Olive oil is pretty great for deep frying, despite claims that it’s not safe or appropriate at the temperatures involved.
That said I’ve known a lot of owners of gyro places and Greek restaurants, and spent a lot of time in the restaurant business. Ain’t nobody filling a commercial deep fryer with olive oil, that would cost an insane amount. Even just spot checking retail pricing online a gallon of peanut oil, one of the pricier frying oils, costs about the same as a quart of cheap olive oil.
Olive oil is also a bit more prone to rancidity, so it would need replacement often. And it doesn’t come in the 35 lb/5ish gallon jugs fryer oil does, typically tops out as a 3lt can.
Extra Virgin Olive oil has a smoke point of 410f. Canola, commonly used for frying at home is 400f probably the lowest of the common deep frying oils.
Now that can be as low as 350f but we’re talking about fancy, cloudy, first pressed, fresh or whatever grades/styles there. That standard can or bottle of every day Extra Virgin is 410f.
I will say that for the most part higher smoke point oils fry better and cleaner in general for some reason. This is why people like peanut oil. It’s just about as high a smoke point as you can get in an affordable to fry in oil. Personally I use a lot of corn oil, almost the same smoke point but cheaper. I’d probably use Safflower oil if I could get large packages of it. 510f smoke point like Avocado oil, but it’s practically the cheapest oil on the shelf. It’s a common component of commercial fry oil mixes and “liquid shortening”, though most of those are soybean oil based these days to avoid trans fats. Unfortunately it only seems to come in 8 and 16oz bottles near me.
One of the biggest improvements in both quality of fried foods, and general “god how do you live with that guy” quality of life, I’ve ever had was getting an outdoor burner and doing my deep frying outside. It is less messy and the ability to use a lot more oil just makes everything easier.
When I do have to fry indoors I use a wok. The shape means you can get proper deep frying with less/practical amounts of oil, contains a lot of the splashing and spitting, and helps to control temperature a bit better. If you get a tempura rack it smooths things out a lot. Since you aren’t tossing around still dripping freshly fried food trying to get it on a draining rack elsewhere.
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Our current toaster oven is a convection oven. I looked at one of the versions with the more powerful overhead fans (on steroids, as you say), but decided against it because it was both smaller (less internal width) and research suggest it was more prone to developing faults, which makes sense as the heat would be rising into the fan assembly. Basically, I’m happy I can put the very nice actual pizza stone in it and the pizza comes out great. Also, it was on sale. For as little as I fry, somewhat more involved methods aren’t much of an imposition.
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I think that’s the wrong framing on it, and that’s what I was trying to get at. These things are a poor substitute for frying. Except when it comes to packaged foods that are, um, already fried. They can certainly make a very good French fry, but it isn’t like a fried French fry. And they’re better at premade, frozen French fries.
If you think of them as particularly good convection devices, they make a lot more sense, are less disappointing, and there is a lot more you can do with them than crisp up chicken fingers.
That’s why I think the toaster ovens are the better case. They’re an all round more useful thing than a standalone air fryer, especially given the prices these things go for.
But you already have a convection device, so we’re talking about a minor quality of life improvement.
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It’s certainly something I’ll keep in mind if and when I need to replace my current convention oven. Mostly though, it’s been one the better purchases I’ve made, exceeding expectations. 
Not a bad idea. The fat could be recycled this way, again and again.
The only problem with this is that human fat apparently smells bad.
I don’t know, but it’s probably yummy af…and pretentious af.
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It’s French originally. IIRC French use of duck and goose fat (along with foie gras) originally comes from Jews. Who raised ducks and geese for cooking fat in places where olive oil wasn’t available. Used it in place of lard and butter.
They introduced it to some other places as well. Especially Hungary, who have been the world’s largest producer of foie gras for a very long time, even though we think of it as a French thing.
Chicken fat became the default schmaltz in the US as Jewish immigrants settled in cities. And weren’t raising their own animals for cooking fat. Chicken is a lot cheaper and lot more popular here, so chicken schmaltz became the major cooking fat for a big chunk of US Jews.
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Just how large is this thing?
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cool. thanks for the primer. in looking about a bit, I did discover a “French connection”, if you will, so perhaps it was Zimmern or Matteson doing a show from Quebec that made me think it was a Canadian thing?
still 10/10 would try (just not as base for poutine, thank you!)
now we return you to your regularly scheduled topic (sorry to derail)
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There was a place here that dumped the drippings from their chicken rotisserie into the fry grease. Best fries in the hood - until the resto was shut down for using non-standard grease.
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I fry hashbrowns in duck fat and live in Quebec, but I think I just did it because someone gifted me duckfat.
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14.5 inches wide. The pizza stone it came with is 13 inches wide. Not huge pizzas, but big enough and they come out great. It’s this one, although I bought it on sale at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $200 a couple of years ago.
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That’s the link from Miss Cellania’s original post.
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Oops, sorry. Withdrawn.
