French-Fry

To French-fry means to cook in deep hot fat or oil. Butter is never used since it burns at around 250 degrees. Pork fat or lard burns at around 400 degrees, most vegetable oils at around 500 degrees, and olive oil at about 550 degrees. Olive oil imparts its own particular flavor to foods; therefore, we use tasteless vegetable oil for French-frying.

We also use a thermometer and hope you will. To test the accuracy of your thermometer, immerse 2 inches of the stem in boiling water, normally considered 212 degrees except when altitude or variations in barometric pressure change the boiling point. If the reading on your thermometer is 200, subtract 12 from the temperature given in the recipe. If it registers 230 for boiling, then add 18 to the temperature given in the recipe. In other words, check your thermometer and don’t assume it is accurate. A 5-degree variant in deep-fat frying is not serious, but anything more would be. In candy making, even 2 degrees difference could ruin the candy. I point this out here, because some thermometers for fat cooking are also used for candy making.