Which is debated as there are signs that point towards Spain having done it first. Then there’s the fact that Belgium says they developed it first, not the French, and that remains hotly debated.
It’s almost like people aren’t entirely sure where French fries came from yet north America insists on calling them French anyway. Wonder if a meme can be made from that?
Without knowing anything at all about the subject, except for where potatoes come from: Can we even be sure that native Americans didn’t do them first?
Apart from the fact that lard fries would be different from French fries (probably better, to be honest), my understanding is they fried food on stones, they did not have metal skillets with high edges (or metal skillets at all). So, fried potatoes, yes. Deep fried, no.
Your point about the frying not being “deep” is valid, but your insistence that it has to be vegetable oil is just incorrect.
Since the 1960s, most french fries in the US have been produced from frozen Russet potatoes which have been blanched or at least air-dried industrially.[12][11][13][14] The usual fat for making french fries is vegetable oil. In the past, beef suet was recommended as superior,[7] with vegetable shortening as an alternative. McDonald’s used a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil until 1990, when they changed to vegetable oil with beef flavouring.[15][16] Horse fat was standard in northern France and Belgium until recently,[17] and is recommended by some chefs.[18]
Which is debated as there are signs that point towards Spain having done it first. Then there’s the fact that Belgium says they developed it first, not the French, and that remains hotly debated.
It’s almost like people aren’t entirely sure where French fries came from yet north America insists on calling them French anyway. Wonder if a meme can be made from that?
@Stamets
I’ll simplify things for you. I invented french fries. Anyone who says otherwise is a dirty liar
Without knowing anything at all about the subject, except for where potatoes come from: Can we even be sure that native Americans didn’t do them first?
They did not have vegetable oil. They could not deep fry potatoes.
They could easily have used lard or tallow…
Apart from the fact that lard fries would be different from French fries (probably better, to be honest), my understanding is they fried food on stones, they did not have metal skillets with high edges (or metal skillets at all). So, fried potatoes, yes. Deep fried, no.
Your point about the frying not being “deep” is valid, but your insistence that it has to be vegetable oil is just incorrect.
wikipedia
TIL
Probably not the deep fried version, since AFAIK there isn’t any evidence of pre-Columbian cooking vessels that would be suitable for frying.
I always thought they were called French fries because they’re French style, as in cut into long thing pieces. Til!
In Finland they’re just called French. Plural.
That might be worse than Germany insisting shrimp scampi comes “with shrimps.”