Blanch?

[chubbyalaskagriz]

RE: "That's what we do in restaurants."

Another someone who cooks for his bread 'n butter... nice!

Where do u cook at, lthipp...?

I cooked for 25 years at places ranging from small-town tavern kitchens, to fancy country clubs, Alaskan resorts, a cruiseship, and Alaskan oil/mining/commemrcial-fishing camps...

The members here come from a variety of back-grounds. It's a nice and diverse group w/ tons of kitchen knowldege. I think you'll enjoy it here. It's a fine place, full of fine folks!

[Mama Mangia]

You also need to blanch french fries before frying them to doneness. That's what we do in restaurants. Usually deep fry them for about 2 minutes and let them sit before frying them again.

to me - that is pre-frying and not blanching. Blanching rapidly heats and then cools the food. So unless you are plunging your 2-minutes fries into ice water - you're not blanching them.

blanching involves boiling hot water - not deep frying

[The Ironic Chef]

Some recipes for a double frying of fries do call the first fry a blanch. They are then cooled in the fridge or even frozen before round 2. The following is from a recipe file.

Make perfect French fries: Blanch your potatoes.

To create the very best fries, you'll want to blanch your potatoes before frying them. To blanch potatoes, heat clean cooking oil to a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It's important that your oil be hot enough to keep the potatoes from soaking up extra oils during the blanching process. Cook your potatoes on both sides for 3-5 minutes. Your goal is to precook your fries. You don't cook them until they're golden brown. After removing your fries from the blanching oil, put them in a container and refrigerate them until you're ready to fry them golden brown.

[Mama Mangia]

I'm too old school - to me it's still pre-frying. It's like trying to teach an old dog new tricks. As far as pre-frying goes - it makes me wonder if restaurants that do that go by the food safety codes. I wonder if they do refrigerate them of not.

[The Ironic Chef]

Mama, I wonder if commercially, they are pre fried for the first time around and then flash frozen. When ready to use you can either fry or bake them. I'm not thinking that to many places make their fries from scratch.
Maybe even the fries bought in the frozen food section have gone through the first fry process.

[CanMan]

I guess I'm old school too. Blanching is with water. Frying is frying, no matter how many times it is done.

[Mama Mangia]

IC - if flash frozen I can see it being done - we live in a world where everything has to be done last week. Not many places make them homemade - I'm glad I still do it that way. I bought a bag of frozen fries a while back - thought I could save time - but I just did not like the taste - almost as if they had a coating of some sort. Maybe they were flash frozen - who knows? I wonder about half the stuff out there they pawn off on unsuspecting victims (us).

CanMan - I'm with you - blanching is with water - frying is frying - whether shallow or deep frying. But then again - you have to blame the one in charge at a restaurant that is telling employees to "blanch" fries. It's apparent the one in charge doesn't know what they are talking about.

A while back there was a discussion here about cooking terms.

Today they do not know proper terms of how to prepare foods - and so many terms have been "lost" forever. I'm glad I know the terms.

A hundred years from now they may come out with "new"cooking terms - all the ones that are lost now.

[jfain]

I'm too old school - to me it's still pre-frying. It's like trying to teach an old dog new tricks. As far as pre-frying goes - it makes me wonder if restaurants that do that go by the food safety codes. I wonder if they do refrigerate them of not.

I actually do blanch in water my potato strips, let them cool and dry before frying. Maybe that is what IC means too. It works every bit as well as pre-frying with a lot less fat being absorbed.

[macro01]

i didn't know french fries are blanched..i just do it on leafy veggies