(Posted on the french fry recipe page but probably better here anyway)
The Chefsteps french fry recipe's first part is to SV cook the fries, packaged in brine. I was wondering - functionally, what's the difference between packaging the fries with the brine and then cooking the packages in water, versus just cooking the fries unpackaged in brine (i.e. using brine instead of water)?
I guess the concentration would go off a little bit due to water evaporating, but at 90C for 15 minutes would it really be very much? Keeping a lid on it would presumably mitigate a lot of that.
And if you're using an immersion circulator, I guess the brine could damage the pump. But if, like me, you're using the saucepan-and-thermapen approach, that's not an issue.
There's a note about how the fries will be fragile once they're cooked. Is that the main advantage - making them easier to handle? I can see how that might help if you're using a nice big polycarbonate tank, but if you're already contorting the bags a bit to get them to fit into a saucepan (or a fish kettle, as I used tonight...) then you're going to have problems regardless, so if I can save on the bags and the prep time then I might as well do so...
