nomster said:
I think traditional belgian fries or chips (or frites?) are double fried
Sort of, but it's for good reason.
You have to fry them on a low (130-150 celcius) temperature for a few minutes to get them done on the inside (man , English really does not have a proper term to define the concept of 'garen', no wonder the cooking is so bad).
After that you take them out so you can turn up the heat to 180-190 degrees and when it's at that temperature you put them back in for another minute to sear them shut.
They also 'sweat' their moisture while frying (just water in them evaporating), so if you sear the outer layer the grease doesn't soak back in after you are done frying, so they aren't greasy and they become crispy on the outside (and still soft on the inside from being done but not overdone or not fried to a crisp on the inside).
The whole process is remarkably easy to fuck up and end up with caramelised sweet fries or soggy ones.
edit : Also since you fry them for longer this way you need potatoes with very low starch content, starch at that temperature turns into sugar (which gets you dark brown sweet fries which is obviously bad)
Also deep frozen fries that you buy in the supermarket normally have the stage 1 frying (or at least baking in an over) already done to them so you only have to finish them at high temp for 2 minutes.
I assume it's the same in the US, so your fries are probably also 'double fried' if you buy deep frozen ones instead of peeling your own potatoes.
We look down upon frying anything else, it's seen as a poor substitute for cooking skills and a fastlane ticket to the lardass zone.
