Soaking peeled, washed, and cut fries in cold water overnight removes excess potato starch, which prevents fries from sticking together and helps achieve maximum crispness.
The additional step of allowing the peeled, washed and cut potatoes to soak in cold water removes excess potato starch from the outside. This will help with the crisping up of the potatoes when they bake or roast.
First, get the starch off! Rinsing or soaking the potatoes for an hour (or, even better, overnight) will remove some of the starch from the surface and prevent the sugars from browning before the potatoes are cooked.
Washing the potatoes twice with water will remove excess starch, which will help them to get extra crispy when roasted or fried.
There's moisture naturally found in potatoes, and moisture is drawn to higher concentrations of salt. (This is a process called osmosis.) So, if you put the potatoes in a salt water bath, that will help draw out some of their moisture, resulting in crispier fries.
Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.
Don't soak cut potatoes longer than overnight.
If keeping potatoes in water for more than an hour, refrigerate. However, don't soak them any longer than overnight—after that, the potatoes start to lose their structure and flavor.
Leaving them unwashed if you're looking for longevity, as unwashed potatoes will last a little longer as the dirt protects them from light. Washed potatoes often lose some of their skin in the washing process, making them more susceptible to air and potential mould spores.
Starch Content by Variety
The starches are actually desirable when making mashed potatoes or baked potatoes, because they have less moisture inside and can absorb liquid well. This quality also leads to soft, mushy centers and potatoes that stick together, so starch removal is necessary to make crispy fries and chips.
The potatoes travel through a water flume to wash off the field soil. The potatoes are pressure-washed to remove any remaining field soil.
Let the oil get really hot before adding potatoes. It won't smoke but it will ripple in the pan. Don't overcrowd the skillet. You can put a cover on the skillet to help them cook for the first bit but take it off for the last part of cooking or your potatoes will be soggy.
When it comes to the actual cooking, you want to fry the french fries twice. The first round is at a lower temperature to cook the inside of the potato and the second time you'll use a higher temperature to make the fries golden brown and crispy. You can use a home deep-fryer or just heat the oil in a Dutch oven.
Turn up the Heat
Try not to overlap the fries so they brown equally, and don't crowd them too tightly in the pan as you'll need to flip the fries halfway through the baking time. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
Keep potatoes crisp in a warm oven if you're serving them in 1-2 hours. If there is a slight wait before everyone eats, don't cover the crispy potatoes—this traps steam which will make the potatoes soggy. Just keep them in the oven, but turn the temperature to the lowest setting.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a minimum, potatoes should be rinsed with water before cutting for cooking. Since potatoes are firm, use a clean brush to scrub them. Do not use soap, bleach, disinfectants, or chemicals to clean produce.
Rinsing potatoes helps remove excess starch, so it is recommended to rinse the potatoes before cooking. To ensure even more starch is out of the way, it's recommended that they even be quickly rinsed after boiling. We recommend using hot water for rinsing after boiling and cold water prior to boiling.
The excess potato starch that forms when potatoes are peeled and sliced must be rinsed off the chips with water. If not, the surface starch will block the evaporation of moisture from the potato and lead to mushy, dark brown chips.
Place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak, 2 to 3 hours. (You can also stick them in the fridge and let them soak overnight.) When you're ready to make the fries, drain off the water and lay the potatoes on 2 baking sheets lined with paper towels.
"A quick rinse in your dishwasher lets you focus on prepping the rest of the meal, cutting your cooking time down dramatically," the publication says. But not everyone agrees. Although this method sounds faster, it would only save you time if you're cooking potatoes for a large group of people.
Soak potatoes in cold water to loosen the dirt. A 15- to 30-minute soak should do the trick. Lift the potatoes out of the water, and scrub them with a vegetable brush under cold running water to remove the dirt. If peeling, proceed by removing the potato skins with a vegetable peeler.
TOOLANGI DELIGHT: A potato developed in Australia. This all-rounder has deep dimples and white flesh and is great mashed, baked, fried and excellent for gnocchi. 'NEW' POTATOES: These potatoes are 'baby' freshly harvested potatoes that have a white skin and white, firm flesh and are small and sweet.
The potato in the salt water shrinks because water moves from the potato into the more concentrated salt water. In contrast, water moves from the less concentrated distilled water into the potato causing it to expand.
Place the potatoes in salted water.
Try dunking your potato slices in salted water as the combination of water and salt keeps oxidation at bay. For every gallon of water, add about one teaspoon of salt to a large bowl or stockpot. Add the potatoes and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
You can store peeled potatoes in water in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Peeled potatoes left out by themselves at room temperature, on a refrigerator shelf or wrapped in foil or plastic wrap will still get dark overnight, so submerge them in a bowl of water, cover and refrigerate.