Baking Soda vs Vinegar Blanching for French Fries - UPDATE WITH PHOTO RESULTS

The french fry recipes here at chefsteps have blanching the cut potatoes in a solution of water, salt, glucose, and baking soda. Kenji, from seriouseats.com also uses a 1st blanching but with water, salt, and vinegar. Here is the link to the website. Anyone know what the outcome differences between these two types? Did chefsteps try a recipe with vinegar blanching?

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t.stanoulis

As far as I understand, using baking soda promotes the breakdown of pectin, whereas vinegar promotes the maintenance of its integrity; thus baking soda chips will have a softer, fluffier interior due to the potato flesh being broken down more completely during the blanching step, and vinegar chips will be more durable for handling and frying. I think that baking soda should also promote maillard reactions during frying — the glucose will further facilitate browning.

sebastian_palmigiani_21610

thank you thomas.

will have to try doing it both ways to see which way i like best.

Pepijn_31744

Be sure to post the results!

Chris_Young_80640

@MetaChef — Alkaline conditions also favor browning via the Maillard reaction. Acidic conditions tend to inhibit browning. Hence, we used baking soda for our blanching rather than vinegars.

sebastian_palmigiani_21610

here are the results of my experiment comparing a vinegar blanching and baking soda blanching for fries.

i pretty much followed the recipe outlined in both the chefsteps.com and

the seriouseats.com. i did, however, focus on 1/2 inch fries as that

is what i like. the seriouseats.com recipe is for 1/4 inch fries so i

made some slight adjustments. also, i did not use the potato selection

method with two different salt solutions. i did a preliminary test last

week on ORGANIC russet potatos from wholefoods. out of a 5 lb bag ONLY

two potatoes passed the float test. so i decided to skip that step.

STEP 1

vinegar sample: i blanched the potatoes in a boiling solution of water,

vinegar, and salt for about 13 minutes as i was boiling thick fries. the

seriouseats.com site says to boil for 10 minutes but those were thin

fries. when i could press on a fry and it would break that is when i

stopped.

baking soda sample: in a sous vide setup, the cut fries were put in a

solution of water, baking soda, salt, glucose as per instructions. even

though i was working with about 450 grams of cut potatoes, when they

were all in the water the temp dropped from 195 to 190 F (next time will

set the starting temp higher). as a result, i decided to sous vide the

cut fries a little longer (about 40 mins). they were definitely, easily

falling apart at the end of that time.

STEP 2

vinegar sample: i put the blanched potatoes on a wire rack to cool and

dry for about 30 minutes. i then did the first fry at 385 F (i have a

breville smart fryer and it only goes up to that temp). i left the

potatoes in the hot oil for about 1.5 minutes. the actual recipes calls

for 50 seconds but since i was doing thick fries i left them a little

longer. here is a photo of what the fries looked like after the first

fry.

notice how intact they are.

baking soda sample: i put the blanched potatoes on a wire rack to dry

and cool for about 30 minutes. i then did a first fry at 266 F for about

9 minutes. here is a photo of what they look like after first fry.

notice that there are not many of them. i lost quite a few from them

falling apart after the blanching.

notice how few there are with many broken up. i started with of about 450 grams for each sample.

after the first fry, i rested both samples on a wire rack to dry and

then put them in the freezer. when the fries were frozen, i vacuum

sealed them and put them in the freezer.

STEP 3

vinegar sample: i put the frozen fries in 385 F oil for about 3 minutes. here is a photo of what they looked like after.

baking soda sample: put the frozen fries in 385 F oil for about 3 minutes. here is a photo of what they looked like after the 2nd fry.

THE COMPARISON TEST

i invited a friend to help compare the two samples. the first question i

asked was: by looking at both fries which one are you most drawn to,

most attracted to. the vinegar sample fry was chosen based on appearance

by both her and myself. she said that they looked more uniform, more

"industrial".

HOWEVER, in terms of taste, internal softness, and outside crunchiness the baking soda sample was definitely THE BEST.

here is a photo of the vinegar sample fry opened:

here is a photo of the baking soda fry sample opened:

my friend said that if she just tasted the vinegar sample they were

great. but when having the chance of comparing them to the baking soda

sample, the vinegar sample fries were for sure 2nd place. i myself

wanted the vinegar fries to win out because they were a little easier to

control. but after having done this experiment, i would, without

equivocation, say that the baking soda fries were far superior. in terms of taste, softness, and crunchiness. the baking soda fries had more of a potato taste while the vinegar fries had more of a starchy taste.

what i need to work on: not losing so many fries during the initial blanching phase.

i would look at reducing the sous-vide blanching time so more can

survive that process.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@MetaChef - what a great post! Thank you for undertaking the test and thoroughly documenting it (loved the pics!) and sharing it with all of us. Most appreciated. I'd be very interested in the modifications to the sous vide blanching steps so that more of your fries survive to make it to the fryer ...

t.stanoulis

This is brilliant work. Thanks so much for doing this!

Re: the vinegar chips, "notice how intact they are." and the baking soda, "i lost quite a few from them falling apart after the blanching."

For me, this is the foundational advantage to choose to avoid vinegar in the blanching stage and especially to use baking soda. The fluffy, broken-down interior is a nice texture and flavour, and the falling-apart chip leads to a greater surface area that gets dried and crisped very well.

ttpoker

I have been working on a similar analysis of potato chips (American chips). Opinions on blanching time periods and methods? I just tried blanch 2 mins with a vinegar solution, still tweaking... no t quite happy with the texture and thickness of the chip yet.

com-chefsteps

This is fantastic.

Matt_67991

I tried making Heston-style roasted potatoes with a bit of baking soda. I wasn't very scientific about the experiment, but I made them two days in a row, and my girlfriend and I preferred them with baking soda. It was easier to rough up the outsides, and they coloured better.

prince_of_porcelain

Great post @MetaChef, but I gotta say that I'd pick the baking soda fries over vinegar based on appearance. They look like everything a great fry should be and I think the appearance is fantastic. By contrast, I think the vinegar fries look really bland.

I asked my wife to evaluate the pics without reading any of the description and she immediately picked the baking soda sample too. I asked my kids and one picked vinegar, one picked baking soda. So 3 of 4 in my household in favor of the baking soda..

Lennard__34626

I agree with Brian, the baking soda fry looks better to me because the crust looks better and more shaggy

Alfred_958012

Which method keeps the fries crisp the longest?

Alfred_958012

Which method keeps the fries crisp the longest?