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If you want the best fries in the world, I'd highly recommend going to Belgium and getting them from any random frituur. The market is competitive, and anybody

If you want the best fries in the world, I'd highly recommend going to Belgium and getting them from any random frituur. The market is competitive, and anybody making lousy frites is unlikely to survive long. They really are amazing: about 1cm square in cross section crunchy and crispy on the outside, but not overly so, light, fluffy, and the perfect balance of dry/moist inside. Never oily, always cooked fresh, and without exception, delicious. Though I will confess that I never got behind putting Mayo on top. Anybody fooling around trying to replicate the original McDonalds recipe is shooting for the wrong target. Shoestring fries don't have the inside/outside texture contrast that makes for fry perfection.

jmenter 6y ago
Yes! So great, especially after a night of drinking Belgian beer. These Belgian frites are the best fries I've ever had (and I'm old enough to have had the original McDonald's fries.) I love them topped with mayo but some places have a curry option that is even better!
jrnkntl 6y ago
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of shitty "frituurs" in Belgium that just fry bought frozen fries instead of the double fried freshly cut ones. Problem is, they get taken over by new owners very quickly (also the the barrier to entry the market is very low). Although checking out the Google Reviews before a visit filtering by the Belgian names of the reviewers' is generally a good enough measure to go by. But please, do try them with mayo!
- petepete 6y ago
  For anyone in the UK looking for the same kind of mayonnaise that you get in Belgium, the closest I've found is this Polish one, available from Tesco or your local Polski sklep. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262110048 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262110048
- mywittyname 6y ago
  > But please, do try them with mayo! It's astonishing to me that mayo is not the default dipping sauce for fries in the US, considering mayo is put on everything in the US. Mayo with hot sauce is my favorite fry dip by a staggering margin.
  - wavefunction 6y ago
    Utah has a local condiment called "fry-sauce" which is I believe equal parts ketchup and mayo, and some pickle juice. It's pretty good.
- floren 6y ago
  > But please, do try them with mayo! On the rare occasions I make fries at home, I like to mix some curry powder into mayo for dipping, a taste I acquired on a trip to Italy.
fnord123 6y ago
They also don't brine the fries in sugar afaik.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
I think the main factor for those - and lots of other 'traditional' chip shops in both Belgium and the Netherlands - is the use of beef tallow instead of the generic 'frituurvet', which is mostly sunflower oil. I mean don't get me wrong, at home we have a fryer and we make the odd load of homemade chips as well and they are the tits, but it's not the same. We used to be able to get solid blocks of frying fat, probably was beef tallow or something like that, but it's all saturated fats (I believe) and bad for one's health and the like. According to the wisdom of the time anyway; I don't know, there may have been some lobby behind it (like how the wheat lobby made fat the boogeyman, and now someone is making the sugar / carb industry look bad).
- echelon 6y ago
  The evidence seems pretty compelling that sugar / carbs are bad. A lot of the things humans put in their mouths just aren't safe long term. We're pretty good at making suboptimal long-term choices. Without being able to run experiments on real human bodies over full life spans like I suggest here [1], it's impossible to quantify. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 (I advocate for this rather frequently)
  - acomjean 6y ago
    Potatoes are pretty much pure carbs. You can get calories from protein, fats and carbs, so choose a balance diet. “Life ain’t worth a dime without a little colesterol” Leah Chase https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase
  - toast0 6y ago
    Sugar is bad, carbs are bad, fat is bad, animal protein is bad, soy is bad. Not a whole lot left to eat.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      There are a lot of vegetables, whole grains, and beans. You can make an excellent diet just from those. Small amounts of any of those "bad" things is just fine. The problem is that many people have come to see them as the core of their diet, with vegetables as an unpleasant supplement to be minimized. Learn to cook vegetables well, and vast frontiers of interesting, delicious food open up. Indian food is an excellent starting point[1], for either vegetarian or vegan eating. For that matter most authentic Asian cuisines are heavy on the vegetables, with small amounts of meat for flavor, which is also a very healthy way to eat (especially if you substitute whole grains for the white rice). Plenty of other cultures have thrived on vegetable-based diets. It's really not that difficult. You just need to get over the notion that "food" consists of a meat main dish, a starch, and a desultory, obligatory vegetable side. [1] https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish is a current favorite of mine.
at_a_remove 6y ago
No "best" fry exists just as there is no single most attractive piece of art. It's all personal taste, which is why the author is trying to replicate something. There's no disputing taste.
ipieter 6y ago
As a Belgian, I was looking in horror at that recipe. Why would people put sugar on their fries?! So I'm glad you like the Belgian fries. What I've always learned to be key is that we fry our cut potatoes twice: once at 140°C, wait for them to cool down, and once at 175-180°C. Then you add salt, that's it. And the mayo: I don't think many people like it like that when they eat fries at home, but it's easy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- linux2647 6y ago
  In the United States, everything[1] has sugar added to it; if not sugar then high fructose corn syrup. [1]: gross overgeneralization
  - tartoran 6y ago
    As an European transplant I confirm that. And American sweets are absolutely loaded with sugar, it overwhelms all other flavors and tastes. My naive pet theory is that in order to cover up the use of lower quality ingredients or substitutes they’re flooded with sugar. That also creates an addictive effect so sales jump up
    - wmil 6y ago
      That's probably part of it, but there's also some history. The southern US used to produce a lot of sugar. Before refrigeration it was heavily used as a preservative. So there's a big market that expects things to have a lot of sugar in them.
      - mywittyname 6y ago
        It's also cheap in the US (in the form of HFCS) and smashes that dopamine receptor with a fucking wrecking ball. Europeans would absolutely eat sugar in the same volumes if it were as cheap there as it is in America. As with most of the cultural differences between the regions, a lot of it comes down to economics: if gas were cheap in Europe, they'd also drive big SUVs; if land were as cheap in Europe, they'd have McMansions; etc.
simias 6y ago
I like how people will be snobby about everything. Belgian-style French fries can be good, but that doesn't mean that they're better than the rest, it's a matter of taste. I personally prefer McDonalds-style fries which are smaller and more homogeneous. And no I'm not ashamed of that, it's fried potatoes, not some kind of fancy technical delicacy. There's no wrong target. Some people enjoy deep-dish pizza. It kinda baffles me but I wouldn't be telling them that they're "shooting for the wrong target" if they tried to replicate this particular recipe because that's what they like.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- mauvehaus 6y ago
  Sorry, I didn't think my claim that a particular style of French fry is best required a disclaimer that it was a statement of opinion and not objective fact :-) I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section and that properly cooked Belgian style fries would be a revelation for a great number of people over here. Besides, the whole premise of TFA is based on snobbery and a bit of nostalgia. They're recreating the old McDonalds fries, not the new because of the perceived superiority of the old ones, after all. I only argue that if you're going to be a snob, you should at least be a well-informed snob, though perhaps my intended humor came across poorly over the internet. Imagine reading an article written by somebody who has never tried deep dish pizza (or any other kind) writing about their quest to replicate an old Dominos crust recipe.
  - jjeaff 6y ago
    >I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section Unless the American eats only at fast food restaurants (which is probably a decent sized group), then I can't imagine that to be true. There are fries with many difference cross section sizes even in a regular grocery freezer aisle. And many restaurants frequently serve fries ranging from skinny shoestring to full on "potato logs" that are easily an inch diameter cross section.
StanislavPetrov 6y ago
The best fries I ever had (as an American who has eaten fast food since the 70s, including the legendary McDonalds fries) were served in Switzerland. The guy quickly sliced up the potato and prepared the fries in some sort of wok with some sort of oily substance that I always assumed was clarified butter, but may very well have been beef tallow or some other concoction.
crazygringo 6y ago
> Shoestring fries don't have the inside/outside texture contrast that makes for fry perfection. They absolutely do have the contrast, where are you getting your shoestring fries?! :P The only thing is, shoestring fries need to be eaten within ~10 minutes of being fried, before they dry out. Maybe you let yours sit around too long, or get them from somewhere that does. Thicker fries are too close to baked potatoes for me. :( I want golden cripsy goodness! Thankfully there are 100 types of fries because people like 100 types of things. :)

jmenter 6y ago

Yes! So great, especially after a night of drinking Belgian beer. These Belgian frites are the best fries I've ever had (and I'm old enough to have had the original McDonald's fries.) I love them topped with mayo but some places have a curry option that is even better!

jrnkntl 6y ago

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of shitty "frituurs" in Belgium that just fry bought frozen fries instead of the double fried freshly cut ones. Problem is, they get taken over by new owners very quickly (also the the barrier to entry the market is very low). Although checking out the Google Reviews before a visit filtering by the Belgian names of the reviewers' is generally a good enough measure to go by. But please, do try them with mayo!

petepete 6y ago
For anyone in the UK looking for the same kind of mayonnaise that you get in Belgium, the closest I've found is this Polish one, available from Tesco or your local Polski sklep. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262110048 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262110048
mywittyname 6y ago
> But please, do try them with mayo! It's astonishing to me that mayo is not the default dipping sauce for fries in the US, considering mayo is put on everything in the US. Mayo with hot sauce is my favorite fry dip by a staggering margin.
- wavefunction 6y ago
  Utah has a local condiment called "fry-sauce" which is I believe equal parts ketchup and mayo, and some pickle juice. It's pretty good.
floren 6y ago
> But please, do try them with mayo! On the rare occasions I make fries at home, I like to mix some curry powder into mayo for dipping, a taste I acquired on a trip to Italy.

fnord123 6y ago

They also don't brine the fries in sugar afaik.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

I think the main factor for those - and lots of other 'traditional' chip shops in both Belgium and the Netherlands - is the use of beef tallow instead of the generic 'frituurvet', which is mostly sunflower oil. I mean don't get me wrong, at home we have a fryer and we make the odd load of homemade chips as well and they are the tits, but it's not the same. We used to be able to get solid blocks of frying fat, probably was beef tallow or something like that, but it's all saturated fats (I believe) and bad for one's health and the like. According to the wisdom of the time anyway; I don't know, there may have been some lobby behind it (like how the wheat lobby made fat the boogeyman, and now someone is making the sugar / carb industry look bad).

echelon 6y ago
The evidence seems pretty compelling that sugar / carbs are bad. A lot of the things humans put in their mouths just aren't safe long term. We're pretty good at making suboptimal long-term choices. Without being able to run experiments on real human bodies over full life spans like I suggest here [1], it's impossible to quantify. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 (I advocate for this rather frequently)
- acomjean 6y ago
  Potatoes are pretty much pure carbs. You can get calories from protein, fats and carbs, so choose a balance diet. “Life ain’t worth a dime without a little colesterol” Leah Chase https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase
- toast0 6y ago
  Sugar is bad, carbs are bad, fat is bad, animal protein is bad, soy is bad. Not a whole lot left to eat.
  - jfengel 6y ago
    There are a lot of vegetables, whole grains, and beans. You can make an excellent diet just from those. Small amounts of any of those "bad" things is just fine. The problem is that many people have come to see them as the core of their diet, with vegetables as an unpleasant supplement to be minimized. Learn to cook vegetables well, and vast frontiers of interesting, delicious food open up. Indian food is an excellent starting point[1], for either vegetarian or vegan eating. For that matter most authentic Asian cuisines are heavy on the vegetables, with small amounts of meat for flavor, which is also a very healthy way to eat (especially if you substitute whole grains for the white rice). Plenty of other cultures have thrived on vegetable-based diets. It's really not that difficult. You just need to get over the notion that "food" consists of a meat main dish, a starch, and a desultory, obligatory vegetable side. [1] https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish is a current favorite of mine.

at_a_remove 6y ago

No "best" fry exists just as there is no single most attractive piece of art. It's all personal taste, which is why the author is trying to replicate something. There's no disputing taste.

ipieter 6y ago

As a Belgian, I was looking in horror at that recipe. Why would people put sugar on their fries?! So I'm glad you like the Belgian fries. What I've always learned to be key is that we fry our cut potatoes twice: once at 140°C, wait for them to cool down, and once at 175-180°C. Then you add salt, that's it. And the mayo: I don't think many people like it like that when they eat fries at home, but it's easy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

linux2647 6y ago
In the United States, everything[1] has sugar added to it; if not sugar then high fructose corn syrup. [1]: gross overgeneralization
- tartoran 6y ago
  As an European transplant I confirm that. And American sweets are absolutely loaded with sugar, it overwhelms all other flavors and tastes. My naive pet theory is that in order to cover up the use of lower quality ingredients or substitutes they’re flooded with sugar. That also creates an addictive effect so sales jump up
  - wmil 6y ago
    That's probably part of it, but there's also some history. The southern US used to produce a lot of sugar. Before refrigeration it was heavily used as a preservative. So there's a big market that expects things to have a lot of sugar in them.
    - mywittyname 6y ago
      It's also cheap in the US (in the form of HFCS) and smashes that dopamine receptor with a fucking wrecking ball. Europeans would absolutely eat sugar in the same volumes if it were as cheap there as it is in America. As with most of the cultural differences between the regions, a lot of it comes down to economics: if gas were cheap in Europe, they'd also drive big SUVs; if land were as cheap in Europe, they'd have McMansions; etc.

simias 6y ago

I like how people will be snobby about everything. Belgian-style French fries can be good, but that doesn't mean that they're better than the rest, it's a matter of taste. I personally prefer McDonalds-style fries which are smaller and more homogeneous. And no I'm not ashamed of that, it's fried potatoes, not some kind of fancy technical delicacy. There's no wrong target. Some people enjoy deep-dish pizza. It kinda baffles me but I wouldn't be telling them that they're "shooting for the wrong target" if they tried to replicate this particular recipe because that's what they like.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mauvehaus 6y ago
Sorry, I didn't think my claim that a particular style of French fry is best required a disclaimer that it was a statement of opinion and not objective fact :-) I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section and that properly cooked Belgian style fries would be a revelation for a great number of people over here. Besides, the whole premise of TFA is based on snobbery and a bit of nostalgia. They're recreating the old McDonalds fries, not the new because of the perceived superiority of the old ones, after all. I only argue that if you're going to be a snob, you should at least be a well-informed snob, though perhaps my intended humor came across poorly over the internet. Imagine reading an article written by somebody who has never tried deep dish pizza (or any other kind) writing about their quest to replicate an old Dominos crust recipe.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  >I do think that entirely too few people in the US have ever tried anything other than fries of smaller cross section Unless the American eats only at fast food restaurants (which is probably a decent sized group), then I can't imagine that to be true. There are fries with many difference cross section sizes even in a regular grocery freezer aisle. And many restaurants frequently serve fries ranging from skinny shoestring to full on "potato logs" that are easily an inch diameter cross section.

StanislavPetrov 6y ago

The best fries I ever had (as an American who has eaten fast food since the 70s, including the legendary McDonalds fries) were served in Switzerland. The guy quickly sliced up the potato and prepared the fries in some sort of wok with some sort of oily substance that I always assumed was clarified butter, but may very well have been beef tallow or some other concoction.

crazygringo 6y ago

> Shoestring fries don't have the inside/outside texture contrast that makes for fry perfection. They absolutely do have the contrast, where are you getting your shoestring fries?! :P The only thing is, shoestring fries need to be eaten within ~10 minutes of being fried, before they dry out. Maybe you let yours sit around too long, or get them from somewhere that does. Thicker fries are too close to baked potatoes for me. :( I want golden cripsy goodness! Thankfully there are 100 types of fries because people like 100 types of things. :)