55 Fun Facts About French Fry

In Britain and Ireland, what are American-style potato chips called?

Fried potato batons are the "chips" there, and thin fast-food fries are sometimes called "skinny fries" to set them apart from thick-cut chips.

Poutine, the dish of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, comes from which Canadian province?

It emerged in the Centre-du-Québec region in the late 1950s, and the word was only added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2014.

Which two countries have a long-running dispute over who invented fries?

Belgian historian Pierre Leclercq has concluded that fries are of French origin, becoming an emblematic Parisian dish in the 19th century, while Belgian tradition blames 'French gastronomic hegemony' for the name.

In March 2003, US House cafeterias replaced the word "French" on their fries and toast with what word?

They became 'freedom fries' and 'freedom toast': Representatives Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones ordered the renaming in March 2003 over France's opposition to the Iraq War; the menus quietly reverted in 2006.

Which fast-food chain introduced its spiral-shaped Curly-Q Fries in 1988?

Arby's put Curly-Q Fries on its menu in 1988; the spiral cut itself is older, sold as 'Suzi-Q potatoes' at an Oklahoma City restaurant in the late 1930s.

Until 1990, McDonald's cooked its fries in a blend that was 93% what?

McDonald's fried in a blend of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil until 1990, when it switched to vegetable oil and added 'natural beef flavor' to keep the taste.

Which US president served 'potatoes served in the French manner' at the White House in 1802?

Thomas Jefferson served 'potatoes served in the French manner' at an 1802 White House dinner; a manuscript in his hand records 'pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches', likely from his chef Honoré Julien.

The oldest known written mention of fried potatoes, from 1629, comes from which country?

The mention is from Chile: Francisco Núñez de Pineda's account of his 1629 captivity among the Mapuche records eating 'papas fritas', probably thick slices fried in lamb or guanaco tallow.

The curator of Belgium's Frietmuseum has suggested which Spanish saint cooked the first fries?

Frietmuseum curator Paul Ilegems proposed Saint Teresa of Ávila, arguing Spain was the first European country to receive the potato and already had a Mediterranean tradition of frying.

In which Belgian city is the Frietmuseum, the self-styled first museum of potato fries?

The Frietmuseum is in Bruges: Eddy Van Belle opened it in 2008 inside the Saaihalle, a 14th-century former wool hall, after the success of his chocolate museum Choco-Story.

A Belgian journalist claimed potatoes were fried in the Meuse valley before 1680 as a substitute for what?

Jo Gérard's story was that villagers took to frying potatoes as a substitute for frying fish when rivers froze; he never produced the 1781 manuscript, and the potato did not reach the Meuse region until around 1735.

In Belgium, fries are traditionally served in what kind of container?

The cornet de frites is a white cardboard cone wrapped in paper, usually finished with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.

In the classic two-bath method, roughly what temperature is the second, crisping fry?

The second, crisping bath is about 190 °C (375 °F); the first, at around 160 °C, cooks the potato through and can be done in advance, so the second fry is brief.

In 1967, Ray Kroc of McDonald's sealed a handshake deal for frozen fries with which Idaho potato baron?

J. R. Simplot and Ray Kroc agreed on a handshake in 1967; fresh russets were unavailable for months each summer, so frozen fries fixed a quality problem, and by 1972 all McDonald's fries were frozen.

Which potato cultivar dominates North American french fry production?

Russet Burbank, a russet-skinned mutation of Luther Burbank's 1870s Burbank potato, is the standard fry potato for McDonald's and the big Idaho processors because of its long shape and high dry matter.

McCain Foods, the world's largest maker of frozen fries, was founded in 1957 in which Canadian province?

McCain Foods was founded in New Brunswick in 1957 by brothers Harrison and Wallace McCain, who built their first frozen-fry plant in the Saint John River valley beside the family's seed-potato business.

McCain has long claimed roughly what share of the world's fries are McCain fries?

McCain's slogan is that 1 in 4 of the world's fries is a McCain fry; the company sells in about 160 countries, with Simplot and Lamb Weston as its main rivals.

Ore-Ida invented Tater Tots in 1953 from what?

Tater Tots began as leftover slivers from fry production at Ore-Ida, which the Grigg brothers chopped, seasoned and formed into little logs in 1953; the brand name fuses Oregon and Idaho.

In which US state was fry sauce, the pink ketchup-and-mayonnaise blend, popularised?

Fry sauce was popularised in Utah: Don Carlos Edwards served it at his barbecue restaurant in the 1940s and then at the first Arctic Circle drive-in in Salt Lake City, where it became a regional staple.

In 2018 Heinz launched a mayonnaise-and-ketchup blend under what name after a Twitter poll?

Heinz's Mayochup reached US shelves in 2018 after a Twitter poll passed the 500,000 'yes' votes the company demanded; many replied that the Mountain West had called the same mix fry sauce for decades.

The Dutch street food 'patatje oorlog' translates literally as what?

'Oorlog' is Dutch for war, so patatje oorlog means 'war fries': fries dressed with mayonnaise, peanut satay sauce and diced raw onion, a messy battlefield of a combination.

In Cape Town, soft, soggy fries doused in white vinegar are known by what name?

Slap-chips ('slap' is Afrikaans for limp) are fried at a lower temperature for longer than usual, then soaked in vinegar; they are the essential filling of the Gatsby, Cape Town's giant sandwich.

In Australia, what seasoning is a popular addition to hot chips?

Chicken salt was created by Peter Brinkworth in Gawler, South Australia, in the 1970s to season rotisserie chicken and became the standard shake-on seasoning at fish-and-chip shops; most versions contain no chicken.

In June 2004, the US Department of Agriculture classified batter-coated French fries as what?

The 'French fry rule' counted batter-coated fries as a vegetable under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, a trade-law classification for produce dealers, later upheld by the Fifth Circuit in Fleming Companies v. USDA.

Which author's 1856 cookbook first printed the term 'French Fried Potatoes' in English?

Eliza Warren's Cookery for Maids of All Work (1856) gave 'French Fried Potatoes' as thin slices fried golden in boiling fat, so the English term predates the familiar deep-fried batons.

In French, thick-cut fries of about 10 mm are named after which Paris landmark?

Pommes Pont Neuf, about 10 mm square, are named after the Paris bridge; thinner cuts are pommes allumettes (matchsticks, about 7 mm), and pommes gaufrettes are waffle-cut.

Fernand Lachance supposedly coined 'poutine' in 1957 by saying curds in fries would make what?

'Ça va faire une maudite poutine!' ('that'll make a damn mess') is what Fernand Lachance supposedly said at Le Café Idéal in Warwick in 1957, one of several competing origin stories from Centre-du-Québec.

Which chef's foie gras poutine at Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon helped push the dish onto upscale menus?

Martin Picard's foie gras poutine at Au Pied de Cochon, opened in Montreal in 2001, made the dish restaurant-worthy and inspired lobster and braised-beef poutines in Toronto and a poutinerie boom in the early 2010s.

'Disco fries', with mozzarella and brown gravy, were popularised by diners in which US state?

Disco fries are a New Jersey diner staple; the name dates to the 1970s, when the customers arriving after midnight had usually come straight from the disco clubs.

The 2003 renaming of French fries over France's Iraq stance began at Cubbie's, in which state?

Cubbie's is in Beaufort, North Carolina; owner Neal Rowland renamed his fries in February 2003, citing World War I precedents such as 'liberty cabbage' for sauerkraut.

In a 2005 Gallup poll, what share of Americans called the 2003 renaming of French fries 'a silly idea'?

Gallup found 66% of Americans thought the renaming silly and only 15% said they used the new name; even co-sponsor Walter B. Jones said in 2005, 'I wish it had never happened.'

The Belgian friterie sandwich of baguette, fries and fried meat is called a mitraillette, meaning what?

Mitraillette is French for submachine gun, a joke on the sandwich's firepower; in the Nord region of France it is called an 'Américain', and after the 2016 Brussels bombings images of it circulated in solidarity.

The salchipapa, sliced sausage mixed with fries, was invented as a street food in which capital city?

Salchipapa began as Lima street food; the name is a portmanteau of salchicha (sausage) and papa (potato), and a chorizo version is called choripapas.

Steak frites was the subject of a semiotic analysis in Mythologies (1957) by which French thinker?

Roland Barthes's essay 'Le bifteck et les frites' in Mythologies (1957) reads steak frites as a French national emblem, though Belgium also claims the dish as its own.

German fries with unmixed stripes of ketchup and mayonnaise are nicknamed 'Pommes Schranke' after what?

The red-and-white striping recalls a railway crossing barrier; a product called Rot Weiß even sells the two sauces in a single toothpaste-style tube.

A 2017 European Commission acrylamide recommendation angered Belgians by suggesting fries be prepared how?

The Commission's draft wanted potatoes blanched before frying to cut acrylamide; Belgian fries are cut raw and fried twice, so the proposal was seen as an assault on the national tradition.

What is the name of the chemical browning process that gives fries their golden colour?

The Maillard reaction between surface amino acids and reducing sugars during the second fry produces the golden crust, while the fluffy interior comes from starch granules swelling with trapped water.

About how many pounds of French fries does the average American eat in a year?

The average American eats roughly 30 pounds of French fries a year, almost all of it as frozen product; about 90% of frozen fries are eaten in restaurants and food service rather than at home.

Acrylamide, the compound behind the 2017 EU fries guidance, forms from sugars and which amino acid?

Acrylamide forms when the amino acid asparagine reacts with reducing sugars at frying temperatures above about 120 °C, so browner, crisper fries carry more of it.

In which decade did Joseph Malin and John Lees open Britain's first credited fish-and-chip shops?

Both shops opened in the 1860s: Joseph Malin in London's East End around 1860 and John Lees in Mossley, near Oldham, in 1863; by 1910 there were over 25,000 chip shops across the UK.

The OED's earliest citation for 'chips' meaning fried potato is from which Dickens novel?

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) has 'husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil'; Oliver Twist had mentioned only 'fried fish warehouses'.

Which burger chain serves fresh-cut fries as its only side and tells staff to add an extra scoop to every order?

Five Guys cuts its fries fresh from Idaho potatoes in each store and tells staff to add an extra scoop to every order so customers feel they got a bargain.

Lamb Weston, one of the world's largest frozen-fry producers, is headquartered in a suburb of which city?

Lamb Weston is based in Eagle, a suburb of Boise; F. Gilbert Lamb founded the company in 1950 in Weston, Oregon, which gave it the second half of its name.

Which potato variety is the traditional choice for Belgian frites?

Bintje, a floury Dutch variety bred in 1904 and named after a schoolgirl, is the traditional frites potato in Belgium and the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, fries are called 'patat' in the north and what in the south?

In the southern Netherlands and Flanders fries are 'friet' or 'frieten', while 'patat' dominates in the north; a Flemish fries shop is a frietkot or frituur.

In Spain, the tapa of fried potato chunks in a spicy paprika sauce is called what?

Patatas bravas are fried potato chunks under a 'brava' sauce built on Spanish pimentón and olive oil, a tapas-bar staple across Spain.

Waffle fries get their lattice shape by doing what to the potato before each pass over the grater?

Quarter-turning it 90° between passes over a ridged mandoline blade makes the second cut cross the first, leaving the lattice of holes that defines waffle fries.

How many fish-and-chip portions did Harry Ramsden's serve in one day in 1952 for a Guinness record?

Harry Ramsden's in Guiseley, West Yorkshire, served 10,000 portions on a single day in 1952, earning a Guinness record; Ramsden had opened the shop as a wooden hut in 1928.

Which Bavarian musician learned to fry potatoes in Paris in 1842 and set up 'Fritz' in Belgium?

Frédéric Krieger's business, Fritz, sold 'Paris-style fried potatoes' at Belgian fairs from the mid-1840s, a key piece of historian Pierre Leclercq's case that fries are French.

One legend says WWI US troops misnamed the chips they ate in Belgium because of what?

The legend says the local army spoke French, Belgium's soldiers being francophone, so the doughboys called the chips 'French'; in fact 'French fried potatoes' was already in American print decades before 1917.

In French, the thinnest fries, about 4 mm across, are called pommes what?

Pommes paille ('straw') are the thinnest cut at about 3–4 mm, finer than 7 mm allumettes (matchsticks), while gaufrettes are the waffle cut.

Which New Brunswick town calls itself 'the French fry capital of the world'?

Florenceville-Bristol, on the Saint John River, is home to McCain Foods' headquarters and the Potato World museum, hence its 'French fry capital of the world' slogan.

In 2004, roughly what share of the US potato crop went into making frozen fries?

In 2004 about 29% of the US potato crop went into frozen fries; of those, roughly 90% were sold to food services and only 10% at retail.

What do Japanese fast-food chains call French fries?

In Japan fries are 'furaido poteto', literally 'fried potato'; McDonald's Japan sells them as 'makku furai poteto', while 'poteto chippu' means crisps.

A 2023 Chinese study linked frequent fried-food eating to a 12% higher risk of what?

The Zhejiang University study in PNAS (2023) tied frequent fried food to a 12% higher risk of anxiety and 7% higher risk of depression, strongest in younger men, while stressing causality was unproven.