What potatoes for frying chips - but using a special oil?

[jellykelly]

Hey guys - I'm looking to make potato chips on my own. Never done it before. I was wondering what kind of potato would be best?

Here's the thing - I'm really into this seed oil thing and so I want to fry the potatos in *Beef Tallow* not vegetable oil.

I could talk for hours about why, if you're interested it's basically just cause the traditional beef tallow is lots healthier (contrary to popular belief) and apparently tastes a lot better too. Here's a guide all about that, I don't want to waste your time writing about that here...

Anyway, I'm new to making potato chips at all and now I've added this new oil thing... With both of those together, what do you think would be the best potato for me to grow to fry them up for potato chips, using beef tallow? Maybe it doesn't even matter what oil I use, but anyway I'd like to know the very best potato for frying. I want to make REALLY deluxe potato chips, a cut above!

 

[DirtMechanic]

Welcome to the forums!

I make Russet kettle chips using my Cuisinart Processer and a slicing blade. They are thicker, and take longer to cook than you might think. I soak away some starch first. The less starch the more crispy the potato. Some use the Yellow potato for this and flavor reasons.

I can make sweet potato chips the same way, but bake them low and slow usually.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Oh- and animal fat tastes like animal, so beef like beef. Not the best look on a stand alone veggie.

Referred as neutral oils, the non flavor
of vegetable or canola oil helps the potato taste come out.

Roasted is the reason? Remember it is too much spice if it is the main flavor, and that is what you will be doing with beef tallow. Your oil flavor must be in the background, as well as your salt and spices, or you are simply doing it wrong.

Instead of potato, you should fry a steak in tallow, or stronger flavored foods than a starchy potato. Butter (clarified) fried steak is a very popular street food for example.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

This guy suggests using a mix of oil and tallow for the final fry https://austin-eats.com/beef-tallow-french-fries/

For the potato I would be looking for a reliable main crop variety, earlies are not usually as good for roasting and frying, but I am pretty sure the varieties here would be different to those in your part of the world, both in terms of availability and performance in your climate.

 

[headfullofbees]

Beef lard for me!
I don't get the flavour, & it fries at a very hot temperature.
If you must use plant-based oil, then it has to be corn oil, for the same reason.

 

[gary350]

Kennebec potatoes make the best chips. The reason you never see Kennebec potatoes for sale in grocery stores all chip manufactures have contracts to buy all Kennebec potatoes. Online says, Kennebec is a hot weather potato like Red Pontiac. Red Pontiac will out produce white potatoes 4 to 1. When we lived up north I could grow potatoes and not even try. We moved to TN it is 100°F and 1 small rain per month June to Oct potatoes are very tricky to grow here. I know people that have given up growing potatoes in TN.

When I lived in Phoenix AZ area 3 years I planted potatoes Nov 1st and harvested a bumper crop Feb 28.

In TN I put 1 eye seed potato cuttings both sides of a soaker hose 6" apart flat on soil surface then cover them up with 2" of soil. Then cover them up with 4" of something soft, potting soil, tree leaves, grass clippings, straw, mulch, saw dust, etc. Too much nitrogen you get very large plants & very few potatoes. If plants don't blossom they need water. If plants don't blossom they grow very few potatoes. Plants need water every 3 days and 5-20-20 fertilizer once a week.

Go to grocery store buy a bag of Kettle potato chips.

Our local garden store has Kennebec seed potatoes March. 1st. Lowe's, Home Depot never has seed potatoes.

 

[NigelJ]

I'm really into this seed oil thing and so I want to fry the potatos in *Beef Tallow*

What seed does "beef tallow" come from?
Tallow is the hard fat from sheeps, was used with a wick for candles and lamps
Lard comes from pigs
And beef dripping comes from beeves and the best bit is always the scrapings off the bottom.

 

[NigelJ]

I want to make REALLY deluxe potato chips, a cut above!

In that case get chef Heston Blumenthal's recipe follow the instructions exactly, with all the boiling, soaking, maturing and frying. After the couple of days required they will be best chips ever.

 

[Ruderunner]

I've done homemade chips and it's rather easy. I used red potatoes, shaved thin on a mandolin. Any of the hard varieties works. A short soak in heavily salted water with a bit of vinegar before frying.

Starches need salt. The vinegar helps the texture and color of the potatoes, the water rinses away excess salt.

I used peanut oil in a cast iron Dutch oven. Do a handful at a time, they go quick. Season immediately if desired. I don't try to dry the potatoes before frying, just ge careful to give them a good shake before they go into the oil. Expect lots of splatter.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

This thread has been confusing me because of English versus American English. To me 'chips' are strips of potato about half an inch square, fried and eaten hot with things like fish or fried egg. I just realised, to Americans they are what I call 'Crisps'.
Apologies if my earlier reply was in any way confusing.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Someone just pointed out to me chips, in England, are what Americans call 'French fries'. Why? To me 'French fries' are a poor, thin imitation, the quintessential British chip is thicker and more succulent, they even come as 'Chunky chips', a shorter, even thicker version. Delectable.

 

[gary350]

Every country has their own name and own version of cut cooked potatoes. I live in America and I watch British TV. What we call French fries England calls, Chips. I like thin cut fried = chips cooked very crispy & crunchy.

French cut potatoes into very fine small pieces like coleslaw, throw a hand full into a hot skillet cook them golden brown and crispy, you have a French Crisp about 6" diameter, potato pancake like an American crunch potato chip. I sometimes cook a French Crisps for breakfast and sometimes we have them for dinner.

My Grandmother use to make German Fried potatoes they are crispy on the outside.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Type of potato. I would use would be a baking type. or the driest type. When I make homemade gnocchi I use baking potatoes. and if I made homemade chips, I would use a combo of goosefat and lard. Or peanut oil.

 

[gary350]

Potato prices at Walmart today 12/8/2022.

Idaho potatoes bring premium prices.

Red generic $1.38 for 5 lbs. Pontiac Red $2.49 for 5 lbs. Idaho Red $6.48 for 5 lbs.

Yellow generic $1.49 for 5 lbs. Yukon Gold $3.99 for 5 lbs. Idaho Yellow $5.99

White generic $1.18 for 5 lbs. Russet $2.50 for 5 lbs. Idaho White $6.34 for 5 lbs.

This is what makes me mad about name brands and unions. They think they are better. I do not buy anything that says Idaho and never will. We are out of potatoes at the moment, potatoes in our garden will be ready to dig up Dec 30 and Jan 15.

I buy grocery store potatoes for seed potatoes they are $3 less per 5 lbs than seed potatoes and grow very well.

 

[YumYum]

These are our local prices:
Russets: 0.58/lb
Yellow: 1.20/lb
Red: 1.14/lb
Jumbo Russets: 1.37/lb (proud of these potatoes)
Idaho: 0.89/lb

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Someone just pointed out to me chips, in England, are what Americans call 'French fries'. Why? To me 'French fries' are a poor, thin imitation, the quintessential British chip is thicker and more succulent, they even come as 'Chunky chips', a shorter, even thicker version. Delectable.

Oh, you mean steak fries! Why didn't you say so? Lots of them over here. Just a different type of French fry - which is exactly what they are - pomme frites - originated in France. But when I grew up in the UK, you guys only called thin crispier ones French fries. I guess your "QBc" is just a "QB version" of the French pomme frite. I seriously question if there is "THE" QBc anyway. They all vary and some are not so good as others. We happen to like slightly thinner crispier fries a lot of the time over here. But we also have "chunky" ones - the ultimate manifestation being jo-jos, which are actual wedges of potato. So good with some Southern deep fried chicken! Heck now I think we will have to go to Uncle Sam's Saloon for their Sunday special two deep fried chicken dinners for $24 (with French fries, jo-jos or tater tots). Basically a whole chicken, so the next day's dinner is taken care of too. Tip - jo-jo reheat better.

As to potato chips, they were commercially invented here in the USA. You called them crisps to differential from your "chips". Makes perfect sense, no mystery there!

If you want to talk about "quintessential", how about hamburgers? They should be 100% ground beef patties, not those nasty hockey pucks things made of some mystery meatloaf like substances you get over there - except for Micky D's or Burger King. I NEVER eat hamburgers in the UK. But that's OK, you have plenty of other good stuff to eat instead. Well, maybe not steak. Do you guys understand what tender steak is? It's the other thing I never eat over there. You can find it, but it's an expensive and time consuming project, fraught with many failures and I don't have the time, money or patience for that, plus I try not to stay that long. Nice thinnly sliced roast beef with Yorkshire pudding absolutely, but I'm not into chewing on slabs of shoe leather. Prime rib roast over here is sliced at least 1/2 inch thick. Come to think of it, that must be why you guys slice you roast beef so thin - smart idea.

On the other hand, there's Shepherd's Pie. I know even you guys use beef sometimes and call it that, but over here I am constantly reminding people that shepherds herd sheep, not cattle. Made with beef (or anything else other than lamb or mutton) it's cottage pie! Interestingly, Shepherd's pie is a type of cottage pie, just to confuse some of you. Like an orange is a fruit, but not all fruit is an orange - you can't call an apple an orange but you can call it fruit! I have even shamed a few restaurants into changing the name on their menu. (Call yourself an "Irish Pub"? Gimme a break!) Costco's homemade fresh pies are my next target...

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

By the way, I grew up in the UK and moved here to the US when I was 30. So I get to legitimately comment on both sides. Have been a US citizen for along time now, so that might give you a clue to my comment on trying not to stay over there too long. Not that I dislike it that much, but I like it here much better - and it's so freaking expensive over there! Plus not much family left over there that I care to associate with since my Mom passed. On the other hand, if we do go now it can finally be purely for tourist reasons, not just sides shoots from visiting family and you do have some cool stuff my wife has never seen.

 

[Sean Regan]

"This isn't my department."
My access to our kitchen, extends only as far as the coffee machine just inside the entrance.
We buy King Edward potatoes, they are cut up small by "the catering department," and baked )not fried) in the oven in a wide shallow pan in a very small amount of rapeseed oil.

 

[gary350]

Potato wedges deep fried like French fries. Each country has their own name for each way potatoes are sliced and cooked.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Potato wedges deep fried like French fries. Each country has their own name for each way potatoes are sliced and cooked.


Interesting. Where in the US are you? We are SE WA State - Columbia Basin (Tri Cities), but all over the West Coast and as far over a Montana, I've only heard them called a Jo-Jo's. Look yummy with that seasoned coating, they look like Yukons or some other yellow tater.

Going back to the OP's question, re chips (AKA crisps to the Brits). After a little research, I found out a lot of chip manufacturers us Peanut Oil because of its high smoke point and mild flavor and is longer lasting. The Kennebec potato mentioned by someone is not actually a single variety. It was, when developed by the USDA during WWII. However, since the late 70's/ early 80's, it has been used to describe a number of similar varieties. Even though they are quite good and compare well with other popular varieties, their popularity with chip AND fries manufacturers is not due taste but their physical characteristics. It's all about the money....