So Many French Fries, So Little Time…
If you follow me on social media you might of noticed that I absolutely love Waffle Me up in Downtown Boise. I had an interesting thought while I was enjoying my Bob-Acado Deluxe last week, you see Waffle Me Up and Boise Fry Company share dining space to make their businesses more efficient, turns out that from where I was sitting I could see the Boise Fry Company menu and I couldn’t help but notice how many different cuts of fries they offer. I then thought to myself, self… How many cuts of fries exist? Here are the most popular ones compliments of popotiq:
The Julienne is a French cutting technique most commonly used for vegetables and it involves cutting food items into long, thin strips.
The Batonnet is a step up from the julienne and will produce a thicker French fry. Translated from French, this means “little stick” and the batonnet measures 1/4” by 1/4” thickness. However, French fries can be and commonly are thicker than this still.
The Crinkle-cut French fry has somewhat of a corrugated surface but you would probably describe it as wavy. Achieving this look involves special cutting equipment such as a crinkle cutter or a specially-outfitted mandolin, which would sometimes involve making two separate cuts.
The Round cut, maybe you have seen those round, smiley-faced French fries that are sometimes served at school lunches and family restaurants. A round-cut fry is a semi-thick, coin-shaped cut that can be fried but also comes to a nice crisp when you put it in this oven. The most popular style of round-cut fries is called a cottage fry.
The Waffle fry, similarly to the crinkle-cut fry, uses equipment such as a mandolin slicer to create that signature waffle shape. It’s a cross-cutting technique that involves rotating the potato 90 degrees after each pass. Usually, these are anywhere from 1/4” to 1/2” thick.
The Wedge, Wedge-cut fries are, of course, wedges. These usually run the length of the potato, often being extremely thick on the outside but tapering to an edge as wedges do.