60 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?

Representatives Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones ordered the change in March 2003 over France's opposition to the Iraq War; the menus quietly reverted in August 2006.

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

Curly fries are far older than that chain: an Oklahoma City restaurant was serving them as 'Suzi-Q potatoes' in 1938.

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

The other 7% was cottonseed oil; after the switch to vegetable oil the chain added beef flavouring to keep the taste.

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

A manuscript in his own hand describes 'pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches', a recipe almost certainly from his French chef Honoré Julien.

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

Francisco Núñez de Pineda's account of captivity among the Mapuche mentions eating 'papas fritas', probably wide slices or cubes fried in lamb or guanaco tallow.

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

Professor Paul Ilegems points to Spain as the first European country to receive the potato and to the Mediterranean tradition of frying as evidence.

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

Founder Eddy Van Belle opened it in 2008 inside the Gothic Saaihalle, a former wool hall dating to 1399, after his chocolate museum proved popular.

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

Jo Gérard never produced the manuscript, and historians note the potato did not even reach the 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 first bath at around 160 °C cooks the potato through and can be done in advance; for 2–3 mm strips the second bath takes only seconds.

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

Fresh russets were unavailable for three months every summer, so frozen fries solved a quality problem; by 1972 all of the chain's fries were frozen.

Which potato cultivar, a mutation selected in 1873, dominates North American fry production?

It made up only 4% of US potatoes in 1930, but Idaho irrigation, frozen fries and fast food pushed it to over 40% of the US growing area by the 2010s.

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

Brothers Harrison and Wallace McCain started in Florenceville, which now calls itself 'the French fry capital of the world' and hosts a museum called Potato World.

According to McCain, roughly what share of the world's fries are McCain fries?

The company sells in 160 countries, and its main rivals are the two other Pacific Northwest giants, Simplot and Lamb Weston.

Ore-Ida invented Tater Tots in 1953 from what?

The Grigg brothers formed the seasoned scraps into little logs, and an employee contest produced the name; the brand name itself fuses Oregon and Idaho.

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

Don Carlos Edwards served it at his barbecue restaurant in the early 1940s and then at the first Arctic Circle in Salt Lake City, and the chain still serves it today.

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

More than 500,000 users voted yes, and plenty replied that the Mountain West had been calling the same mixture fry sauce for decades.

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

It is fries dressed with mayonnaise, peanut satay sauce and diced raw onion, a messy combination that earned the name.

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

Fried at a lower temperature for longer than usual, they are an essential filling of the Gatsby, the giant Cape Town sandwich.

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

Peter Brinkworth created it in the 1970s in Gawler, South Australia to season rotisserie chicken; most supermarket versions today contain no chicken at all.

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

The so-called 'French fry rule' under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act was for trade reasons and was upheld by the Fifth Circuit in Fleming Companies v. USDA.

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

Her Cookery for Maids of All Work described thin slices shallow-fried golden, so the term predates the familiar deep-fried batons.

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

Thinner cuts are pommes allumettes (matchsticks, about 7 mm) and pommes paille (straws, about 4 mm), while pommes gaufrettes are waffle fries.

In northern France and Belgium, what fat was traditionally standard for frying fries?

Some chefs recommend it over vegetable oil, while older recipes elsewhere favoured beef suet, with vegetable shortening as the alternative.

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

His shout of 'ça va faire une maudite poutine!' at Le Café Idéal in Warwick is 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?

Its success inspired lobster and braised-beef poutines in Toronto and a poutinerie boom across Canada in the early 2010s.

In a 2017 Maclean's survey of Canadians' favourite iconic food, poutine finished first ahead of what?

Poutine took 21% of the vote to maple syrup's 14%, and by 2011 media were reporting 11 April as National Poutine Day.

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

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?

Owner Neal Rowland cited World War I precedents like 'liberty cabbage'; he trademarked the term in 2007, and the registration was cancelled in 2013.

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

Only 15% said they would actually use the new name, and even co-sponsor Walter B. Jones later said 'I wish it had never happened.'

A 2022 Nottingham Trent University study said the ideal chip butty holds how many chips?

The National Federation of Fish Fryers dates the sandwich to 1863 at Mr Lees in Oldham, the second-ever fish and chip shop in Britain.

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

In the Nord region of France the same sandwich is called an 'Américain', and after the 2016 Brussels bombings images of it were shared as a symbol of solidarity.

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

The name is a portmanteau of salchicha and papa; a chorizo version is called choripapas.

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

Belgium claims to be the dish's country of origin, and some there consider it a national dish alongside mussels and fries.

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?

Belgian fries are defined by being fried twice, and the proposal was seen as an assault on the country's gastronomic tradition.

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

Amino acids and glucose on the surface react during the second fry, 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?

In 2004 fully 29% of the US potato crop went into frozen fries, with 90% of that eaten in restaurants and food service.

A large McDonald's fries in the US weighs 154 grams and contains roughly how many calories?

That serving carries 66 g of carbohydrate, 24 g of fat, 7 g of protein and 350 mg of sodium.

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

By 1910 there were over 25,000 chip shops across the UK, and the dish was one of the few foods never rationed in either world war.

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

The 1859 line describes '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?

Staff are told to add an extra scoop of fries to every order to make customers feel they got a bargain, though the extra was already priced in.

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

Gilbert Lamb founded it in 1950 in a former co-op plant in Weston, Oregon; today it is based in Eagle, Idaho.

In Belgium, mussels served with fries — often called the national dish — go by what name?

The pairing is also popular in the neighbouring Nord region of France, and Belgian beef stew carbonade is likewise usually served with fries.

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

The same word is used in Flanders, where fries shops are known as a frietkot or frituur.

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

The 'brava' sauce is built on Spanish pimentón and olive oil, and the same sauce is sometimes poured over mussels.

Which fast-food chain began serving poutine in 1983, following Montreal's La Banquise?

Tim Hortons did not add poutine until 2018; in Canada many combo meals can be 'poutinized' by adding curds and gravy to the fries.

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

Tornado fries are the other showpiece cut: a helical spiral threaded onto a skewer and deep fried.

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

Ramsden had opened the West Yorkshire shop in 1928; George Orwell listed fish and chips chief among working-class 'home comforts' in The Road to Wigan Pier.

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

His business, Fritz, sold 'Paris-style fried potatoes', 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 name was actually in use in the US as early as 1880, and its popularity did not rise for decades after 1917.

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

Meaning 'straw', they are thinner than 7 mm allumettes (matchsticks); gaufrettes are waffle fries.

Who is credited with selling the first commercially available chips in the UK, in 1854?

She traded in a West Riding town; a Belgian immigrant later sold Scotland's first chips in Dundee in the 1870s.

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

It is home to McCain Foods' headquarters and a museum called Potato World; Canada supplies 22% of China's fries.

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

Of those fries, 90% went to food services and just 10% to retail; the US supplies most of China's imported fries.

What is the Japanese fast-food name for fried potatoes?

Okonomiyaki fries top them with unagi sauce, mayonnaise, katsuobushi, furikake and stir-fried cabbage.

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

Depression risk was 7% higher, with the link strongest in younger men, though the researchers stressed causality was unproven.