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What does soaking potatoes before frying do?

The soaking, Mr. Nasr said, is the secret to the crisp texture of the fries. It draws out the starch, making them more rigid and less likely to stick together. The cooks fry them twice, first blanching them until slightly limp in peanut oil heated to 325 degrees, and again in 375-degree oil to crisp and brown them.

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''We are very, very hung up on our fries around here,'' said Anthony Bourdain, the chef at Les Halles. ''It's the first thing I look at when I come in in the morning.'' The fries are a little fatter and more moist than those at Balthazar -- like creamy mashed potatoes in a crisp shell. How Les Halles arrives at them, though, couldn't be more different. The potatoes are hardly soaked at all and are cooked at different temperatures. ''Too much starch leaches out and it changes the sugar content and the starch,'' Mr. Bourdain said. ''All the good stuff ends up in the water, and the potato starts behaving weirdly.'' That was the first sign of trouble. I began to sense a long road ahead.

It was time to get in the kitchen.

First, I focused on technique, deciding whether to cut and fry, or go the extra mile and soak. To simplify, I used Idaho potatoes and peanut oil for these initial forays. And I regret to report that going the extra mile was markedly better. I peeled the potatoes and soaked them in water for eight hours, then cut and soaked them for eight hours longer. Before frying them, I laid them out on dish towels and let them dry completely. (This is important to prevent oil from bubbling up when the potatoes are dropped in.) The double-soaked fries snapped under my teeth and seemed lighter. I DREDGED one batch in potato starch before frying, as some fast-food restaurants do to assure a crisp outer shell. The fries were crisp, but the starch gathered into tiny balls on the surface and did not brown well. I also played around with the temperatures, blanching some fries at 275 degrees and finishing them at 375, others at 300 and 400. The trick is to fry them as quickly as possible, so they have less time to absorb the oil, but not so quickly that they brown before they cook inside. Fries cut the way I like them -- slightly thinner than a quarter of an inch -- cook quickly. Blanched at 300 degrees, the fries cooked through in two minutes without browning. And finishing them at 375 made it easier to control the browning. At 400 degrees, many charred before I had a chance to strain them.

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What 3 foods can acrylamide present in?

The major food sources of acrylamide are French fries and potato chips; crackers, bread, and cookies; breakfast cereals; canned black olives; prune juice; and coffee. Acrylamide levels in food vary widely depending on the manufacturer, the cooking time, and the method and temperature of the cooking process (5, 6).

Food and cigarette smoke are the major sources of acrylamide exposure for people in the general population (3, 4). The major food sources of acrylamide are French fries and potato chips; crackers, bread, and cookies; breakfast cereals; canned black olives; prune juice; and coffee. Acrylamide levels in food vary widely depending on the manufacturer, the cooking time, and the method and temperature of the cooking process (5, 6). Decreasing cooking time to avoid heavy crisping or browning, blanching potatoes before frying, not storing potatoes in a refrigerator, and post-drying (drying in a hot air oven after frying) have been shown to decrease the acrylamide content of some foods (7, 8). People are exposed to substantially more acrylamide from tobacco smoke than from food. People who smoke have three to five times higher levels of acrylamide exposure markers in their blood than do non-smokers (9). Exposure from other sources is likely to be significantly less than that from food or smoking, but scientists do not yet have a complete understanding of all sources of exposure. Regulations are in place to limit exposure in workplaces where acrylamide may be present, such as industrial settings that use polyacrylamide and acrylamide copolymers.

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Why do you soak french fries before cooking?
Why do you soak french fries before cooking?

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