Ultimate Hand-Cut French Fries

For the adventurous home cook, tackling homemade French fries is one of the ultimate kitchen challenges. I know it was for me, so I collected all of my books on food science and began to study. Thanks to Harold McGee, Shirley Corriher, Russ Parsons, David Joachim, and Andrew Schloss, I now understand the finer points of making perfect fries. It takes potatoes with a high starch content—russets—to make flaky fries with crisp exteriors. Soaking the potatoes is key, because it draws the starch