Best Way To Prepare Home Cut Chips For Freezing?

[Mort7]

As above. Is it best to:-

1) Peel and chip potatoes, soak for 20 minutes or so, dry, and freeze.

2) Peel and chip potatoes, soak for 20 minutes, rinse, blanch in boiling water, dry, and freeze.

3) Peel and chip potatoes, rinse, dry, blanch at low temperature in a deep fat fryer, cool, and freeze.

4) Some other method of chip sorcery.

Chips will be cooked prior to serving in a deep fat fryer using good quality vegetable oil.

I've tried Googling this, but a lot of the suggestions are aimed at making oven chips, which I don't want. Any recommendations?

[21TonyK]

Do you want chip shop style chunky or MaccyD thin and very crispy?

[anonymous-user]

or just make from fresh, they will lose they cellular structure as they have not been flash frozen.

[Mort7]

21TonyK said:

Do you want chip shop style chunky or MaccyD thin and very crispy?

I'm trying to replicate normal frozen straight cut frying chips, like you used to get in the old days before oven chips were invented. I do make them from scratch when I have the time and inclination, but sometimes it's nice just to grab a bag from the freezer and deep fry them straight away.

Unfortunately everything retail seems to be geared to oven chips now. Normal frozen chips for frying are as rare as hen's teeth. Waitrose used to sell them, but they've now been withdrawn, so I'm looking to make and freeze my own.

[21TonyK]

Okay, gotcha. I'll bow out on this one then. Big thick ones, mash like in the middle or extra skinny stay crisp ones I can do but not the sort you mean, still like a real potato in the middle. That's the bit that gets lost by the blanching process I have used.

If I was experimenting I would go with cut, wash, blanch at 80 degrees for 3-4 minutes, air dry and freeze on baking parchment. Then fry at 180 when needed.

[Mort7]

Cheers. I've just finished a batch using option 2, and I'll give them a try next week. When I've got the deep fat fryer stoked up I'll give your method a go, and see how they turn out when they're re-cooked (probably the week after).

I appreciate the feedback.

[21TonyK]

My guessed method is close to no.3 except when I say blanch I mean in water to which I would add a small amount of salt just to preseason the potato.

If you want to go the whole "crispy fry" thing add a tiny amount of white wine vinegar (about 1%) by volume of water and blanch a couple of minutes more. For this method you need to dry overnight in a fridge before freezing.

[Mort7]

Thanks.