The Potato Tip You Should Follow For Homemade French Fries

Out of the many uses for potatoes, it's hard to think of a better way to transform the root vegetable than to make a batch of classic french fries. Though you're probably wanting to get to your crispy and delicious side dish as quickly as possible, preparing the perfect batch of fries isn't as simple as reaching for the nearest sack of potatoes, slicing them up, and hoping for the best. Your choice between the many different types of potatoes can have an enormous impact on how your fries turn out.

Luckily, the best variety of potatoes for homemade french fries is not only incredibly easy to find but also relatively affordable — the Russet potato. This is because the low moisture-high starch ratio, unlike other spuds, leads to a crispier and more satisfying final product. This is important in the face of waxy potato varieties, in which the moisture and starch ratios are flipped.

Russet potatoes (specifically the Russet Burbank variety) make up about 70% of all potatoes sold in North America, according to Specialty Produce. And if you're not convinced that Russet is the way to go, the site continues that this is also the kind of potato used to make the world-famous McDonald's french fries. 

If you experimented with making fries from a waxy potato base, such as red potatoes or fingerling potatoes, you'd likely end up burning them. This is because their moisture and sugar would cause the potatoes to cook too quickly in the hot oil. On the other hand, if they did successfully make it out of the fryer, you would run the risk of pulling out a batch of hollow fries because all the moisture would be drawn out during the cooking process. The starch in other potatoes, like the Russet varieties, keeps these mishaps from occurring.

You can identify Russet potatoes by their dark brown skin and pale, cream-colored flesh. This variety has become synonymous with the label "Idaho potatoes" in the United States, although the nickname is a bit misleading. Other types of potatoes are also grown in Idaho and therefore carry the same label despite not having the same properties as a true Russet potato.

In either case, as long as the label says "Russet," you'll be in a good spot to start your journey to uncovering crisp, fresh, and homemade French fries. Try them with a smash burger for the perfect All-American meal.