Great experiments. I always deep fry my french fries twice. Once for 5 minutes, then they rest for a few minutes and fry them again. For me, they become nice and crispy by doing this. Love the hash browns!
Thanks. You have made up my mind as to how I will process my potatoes. I will probably purchase a french-fry slicer to speed up the process and also blanch the potatoes versus the fruit fresh. Like the cleaned stove and please keep the new ideas flowing.🤩🤩🤩 I love sweet potato fries too, so will FD some to see how they turn out.
@@imaninailsystems7901You generally blanch potatoes for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness. So thick fries would be 5 minutes, but potato chip or "Augratin" thickness would be in the 3 minutes range
I know this video is about a year old but today I had 50lbs of red potatoes that needed something done with them so we spiralized them then cut across to make 2 inch pieces approximately. We rinsed them too and added fruit fresh because I knew they would turn brown. We put them on freeze dryer trays to pre-freeze and they are now in the freeze dryer. I am hoping they turn out as nice as yours. I was surprised that your potatoes turned brown during re-hydration but then turned white in the fryer. Thank you for making this video, it has been a learning time for me.
I bought an electric potato peeler on Amazon for $30. Boy! Has it ever been worth it! I can now peel 50 lbs of potatoes in an hour. Then I have a Ronco Slice-O-Matic that I run them through. It makes wedges and fries. If I want hash browns, I run them through them through my Kitchen Aid grater, For mashed potatoes, I just cube and boil before mashing. Ultimately, I freeze dry them in 4-5 batches. I love all my time saving devices! It makes feeding a big family and preserving for the future so much easier!
Cool vid. I freeze-dried some commercial mashed potatoes sold in little plastic tubs, then powdered them in my food processor. They rehydrate very easily without getting clumpy.
I think I will try cooking some in my air fryer. I know when I dice up my canned potatoes to fry I dust them with corn/arrow root starch and they come out nice and crispy. I also add cream of tarter to my mashed potatoes to make them whiter in color just like I add turmeric in my chicken/turkey gravy to make it yellower in color, and it does not effect the flavor. Just remember a little goes a long way.. Love how you push the limits on freeze drying.
Very helpful! I’m prolly gonna stick with diced pre cooked and mashed pre cooked for long term storage. I don’t eat many fries now so I don’t think I’ll want them when options become limited; but my kids might so maybe a tray or two here and there.
Thank you for this video. I have my first diced potatoes in the freeze dryer right now. I am glad to know that they can be used for mashed potatoes. I was planning to do some French fries but now I think it is probably best to do more diced potatoes.
The reason they taste so different is because when you put them in water all the starch comes out. It's the starch in the sugar that gives it its flavor and makes it turn brown. I know I blanch my potatoes first, and they do taste different next time I rehydrate I'm going to sprinkle some potato start in the water to rehydrate them with
Phil: McDonalds has 2 thing going for it that you can't duplicate. First they have a special breed of potatoes not the russets we use. Second they have a special trade secret frying oil, many folk believe it contains some animal as well as vegetable based oils are blended for their french fries. Also you should blanch those french fries before freeze drying. This can be done by placing the fries in a glass bowl covered in plastic wrap and microwaving for a 5 or so minutes then dry them on toweling and freeze or freeze dry. Or alternately par cook them in oil and drain on toweling before freezing. Next time try hot milk in the mashed potatoes looked good. I did enjoy the video. Keep up the experimenting that's how we all learn.
GREAT video lesson, Phil! I am wondering about not peeling the potatoes. The first time I made mashed potatoes without peeling the potatoes I expected brown mashed potatoes. Not so! just specks of peel in the potatoes!
I'm glad you did this. I'm not been crazy about fd potatoes. To me they are soggy little gross sponges. I'm must check this out. Also frozen store fries are blanched. If you find them on sale.
My sister did potatoes and found she had to blanch them or they turned black when she reconstituted them apparently you don't have to do that. Well maybe they would work better if they were blanched but it does add more work.
Without blanching, mine recontistuded were gross. But did not use the Fruit Fresh as they went straight to the freezer and appeared fine. May try Phil's way of this as his advice is golden.
@@bartcalder2791 gross as in look or taste? I had to emergency FD some raw potatoes and I only had time to peel and slice them. Noticed a few browning during the FD process, but not terrible.
On our potatoes, no matter which shape we freeze dry them, except mashed, we have always blanched them, they keep the white coloring even in the hydration part. This is another option if we are doing massive amounts though. As long as they don't turn gray, like we've seen happen with our friend, we are good with the brown.
Love following your experiments. Wondering what would happen if you hydrated the french fries longer OR fried them longer??? Have you done any more experimentation in that area?? Your video is so easy to follow along with. Thank you.
Did you blanch your potatoes before you froze them? I did not have a problem with mine turning dark I did blanch them before I froze them. I did use a spray bottle and misted mine to rehydrate or partially rehydrate them before I put them in the deep fryer, they were ok but the seemed lighter than potatoes fried from fresh or store bought frozen potatoes. Thanks for sharing your experiments.
Hey Phil. Have you tried to par boil your potatoes before freeze drying? I have the same freeze dryer but I do left over meals and a lot of garden produce. Our home grown taters do not last long enough to freeze dry but I would like to try it.
I was hoping that you would deep fry them when they were in the freeze dried state. I didn't expect that result of them not frying as when they're reconstituted. 😊
@@Philat4800feet Yes, I just didn't expect the result of them just floating on the surface and not actually frying. It was really interesting for sure. 🙂
I was curious....You FD your French Fries with out Blanching? They didn't turn black like people say they will. Was there something in your water that you soaked in to prevent them from turning black?
The plain water bowl looks like it has a lot of starch from reconstituting. I'm going to try with the sugar water and some lemon juice to see if the colour stays neutral.
I can't remember, but most of my batches are around 24 hours with the following setting: 0 freeze point 0:00 extra freeze time 130 Temp 12:00 extra dry time I prefreeze all my food. and prefreeze my FD
If dropping the fries into the oil removes the oxidation as shown, why bother with fruit fresh step? Drop on tray and freeze as the frying removes oxidation.
I am one of your biggest fans and love to watch your experimenting with materials as well as food. however this time you lost me. Sorry, but maybe give a healther version with the unhealth. One, I would invest in a mandolin and an Air fryer. Frankly you totally lost me when you peeled the pots added sugar, deep fryed in vegetable oil and compared your fries to McDonald's! You degraded a wonderfully balanced potato full of fiber, nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals; which makes for a perfect food for the Apocalypse and easy to grow. Pots got people through the great depression and you can bet no one was peeling the fiber, potassium vit C that kept them full and healthy off. I also have a Julian blade for my mandolin which makes it quicker to rehydrate and crispier in the air fryer. Truly I am not criticizing in a negative way but just a positive input on a healthier version. Thanks again for your videos.
@@Philat4800feet Mine too, but you can make them healthy my friend! you'll love them, just give them a try. Sweet and purple potatoes too. The price of mandolin are very cheap and the air fryers have come way down. You can even buy an air oven these days. Try unpeeled Julian fries and you'll never go back.😀🤣 blessings
Thanks for making this video. I appreciate that info that stacking the fries on the tray is more economical than 2 separate loads in the freeze dryer.
Glad it was helpful
Phil I think that's T-shirt you should sell: "STACK IT DEEP/DRY IT CHEAP".. Excellent vid sir! Thanks
Thanks for doing all the experimenting for us - I love how thorough you are.
So nice of you
This was very helpful. I've a lot of potatoes to preserve and didn't know which way to go. I've got an idea of the direction now. Thank you!
Thank You Phil!! Always great, useful information!! Thanks
Great experiments. I always deep fry my french fries twice. Once for 5 minutes, then they rest for a few minutes and fry them again. For me, they become nice and crispy by doing this. Love the hash browns!
Thanks. You have made up my mind as to how I will process my potatoes. I will probably purchase a french-fry slicer to speed up the process and also blanch the potatoes versus the fruit fresh. Like the cleaned stove and please keep the new ideas flowing.🤩🤩🤩 I love sweet potato fries too, so will FD some to see how they turn out.
Hi! Do you mind if I ask how long you blanched them for? How did it turn out??
@@imaninailsystems7901You generally blanch potatoes for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness. So thick fries would be 5 minutes, but potato chip or "Augratin" thickness would be in the 3 minutes range
How did the sweet potato fries turn out?
Great video! Thanks for being so thorough
I know this video is about a year old but today I had 50lbs of red potatoes that needed something done with them so we spiralized them then cut across to make 2 inch pieces approximately. We rinsed them too and added fruit fresh because I knew they would turn brown. We put them on freeze dryer trays to pre-freeze and they are now in the freeze dryer. I am hoping they turn out as nice as yours. I was surprised that your potatoes turned brown during re-hydration but then turned white in the fryer. Thank you for making this video, it has been a learning time for me.
Sound good. Should work.
Great content! I think I said it before, you are the BEST Freeze Dried Foodie on youtube.
Thanks
I bought an electric potato peeler on Amazon for $30. Boy! Has it ever been worth it! I can now peel 50 lbs of potatoes in an hour. Then I have a Ronco Slice-O-Matic that I run them through. It makes wedges and fries. If I want hash browns, I run them through them through my Kitchen Aid grater, For mashed potatoes, I just cube and boil before mashing. Ultimately, I freeze dry them in 4-5 batches. I love all my time saving devices! It makes feeding a big family and preserving for the future so much easier!
Wow, a Ronco? He came up with all kinds of gadgets.
Great demonstration! Thank you
I was wondering about all these scenarios! Good job . Very helpful
Always love to watch your videos!!!! Thanks so much for letting us in on all your hard work! ❤️
You are so welcome!
I’m wondering what the results would be if the potato fries were par boiled prior to freeze drying???
Thank you for sharing all your efforts 💥
Cool vid. I freeze-dried some commercial mashed potatoes sold in little plastic tubs, then powdered them in my food processor. They rehydrate very easily without getting clumpy.
Love mash potatoes
@@Philat4800feet Yeah! And stirring up some FD mashed potatoes seems only slightly less convenient than opening a bag o' chips!
you make great videoes
Glad you like them
Great video, love the cast iron
For the McDonald's fries add some beef stock to the soak water along with the sugar. Makes a world of difference.
Interesting
I agree, that it is likely cheaper to pack the product in. One run for a little longer is better than multiple runs
I think I will try cooking some in my air fryer. I know when I dice up my canned potatoes to fry I dust them with corn/arrow root starch and they come out nice and crispy. I also add cream of tarter to my mashed potatoes to make them whiter in color just like I add turmeric in my chicken/turkey gravy to make it yellower in color, and it does not effect the flavor. Just remember a little goes a long way.. Love how you push the limits on freeze drying.
My wife suggested air frying.
I par boil mine then freeze dry. When rehydrated fixed in air fryer on 400. They were delicious
Cool. I'm going to try this for sure. Thank you, Phil.
Enjoy
Fantastic video! Thank you.
Phil! You do all the work for us, thank you so much!!
I appreciate that.
Very helpful! I’m prolly gonna stick with diced pre cooked and mashed pre cooked for long term storage. I don’t eat many fries now so I don’t think I’ll want them when options become limited; but my kids might so maybe a tray or two here and there.
Thanks so much for this video, thank YOU for your time!
Deep Fried Foam! Bwahahaha Crack me up. Thanks Phil for sharing your experience.
Thanks for your time and knowledge!
My pleasure!
Interesting. Thank you. I just found you by chance. Glad I did. I purchased a Harvest Righg Freeze Dryer and have 10 pounds of potatoes freeze dry.
May you have many loads of freeze drying joy
Most mandolin slicers have a French fry option . Might be quicker to cut that way. Thanks for the great video
Thank you for this video. I have my first diced potatoes in the freeze dryer right now. I am glad to know that they can be used for mashed potatoes. I was planning to do some French fries but now I think it is probably best to do more diced potatoes.
Diced will work too.
It doesnt really matter if they arent perfect in a SHTF YOU WILL BE THANKFULL YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO EAT ❤❤
Very interesting!
Been wondering the best way to f.d. potatoes. Have heard lots of horror stories. Thank you once again
Hope you enjoy
Thanks for this. I have a bag of potatoes and I was wondering the best way to FD.
It would have been interesting to see non-freeze dried french fries done as a control to compare vs the three variants you did.
Thank you for doing the video!
I have a ton of potatoes 🥔
The reason they taste so different is because when you put them in water all the starch comes out. It's the starch in the sugar that gives it its flavor and makes it turn brown. I know I blanch my potatoes first, and they do taste different next time I rehydrate I'm going to sprinkle some potato start in the water to rehydrate them with
Phil: McDonalds has 2 thing going for it that you can't duplicate. First they have a special breed of potatoes not the russets we use. Second they have a special trade secret frying oil, many folk believe it contains some animal as well as vegetable based oils are blended for their french fries. Also you should blanch those french fries before freeze drying. This can be done by placing the fries in a glass bowl covered in plastic wrap and microwaving for a 5 or so minutes then dry them on toweling and freeze or freeze dry. Or alternately par cook them in oil and drain on toweling before freezing. Next time try hot milk in the mashed potatoes looked good. I did enjoy the video. Keep up the experimenting that's how we all learn.
I agree on blanching. But on a large scale ( a garden 200' x 75') Sometimes it's not practical. Love McD fries.
How long do you blanch them for?
GREAT video lesson, Phil! I am wondering about not peeling the potatoes. The first time I made mashed potatoes without peeling the potatoes I expected brown mashed potatoes. Not so! just specks of peel in the potatoes!
I sometimes will leave the peels on. Gives a hardy taste.
I'm glad you did this. I'm not been crazy about fd potatoes. To me they are soggy little gross sponges. I'm must check this out. Also frozen store fries are blanched. If you find them on sale.
Problem with store fries is they are coated in oil. You will be wasting your time & money…
My sister did potatoes and found she had to blanch them or they turned black when she reconstituted them apparently you don't have to do that. Well maybe they would work better if they were blanched but it does add more work.
Without blanching, mine recontistuded were gross. But did not use the Fruit Fresh as they went straight to the freezer and appeared fine. May try Phil's way of this as his advice is golden.
@@bartcalder2791 gross as in look or taste? I had to emergency FD some raw potatoes and I only had time to peel and slice them. Noticed a few browning during the FD process, but not terrible.
@@T4nkcommander they will turn blackish when reconstituting.
Soaking in plain water with at least 3 water changes and blanching kept my grated hash brown potatoes perfect.
On our potatoes, no matter which shape we freeze dry them, except mashed, we have always blanched them, they keep the white coloring even in the hydration part. This is another option if we are doing massive amounts though. As long as they don't turn gray, like we've seen happen with our friend, we are good with the brown.
For how long for you blanch your potatoes?
For mashed potatoes, I use a ricer and rice cooked potatoes right onto the tray…. Makes wonderful potato buds for mashed potatoes
lol, hot foam :)
another very good and informative video. I wonder how you would do the fries if you used an air fryer?
Why don't you try it and let me know.
Blanching will help the color as well as a better end product once rehydrated
Thank you for the video.
Love following your experiments. Wondering what would happen if you hydrated the french fries longer OR fried them longer??? Have you done any more experimentation in that area?? Your video is so easy to follow along with. Thank you.
Sorry, Nope.
Taste like hot foam 🤣
Hot salty foam goodness
Did you blanch your potatoes before you froze them? I did not have a problem with mine turning dark I did blanch them before I froze them. I did use a spray bottle and misted mine to rehydrate or partially rehydrate them before I put them in the deep fryer, they were ok but the seemed lighter than potatoes fried from fresh or store bought frozen potatoes. Thanks for sharing your experiments.
Did not blanch before FD
Thank you.
Wonder if leaving the skins on the PO's if they would give you even a nicer flavor once rehydrated/deep fried?
I like the extra taste of the skins.
@@Philat4800feet yes,.. I think next load I'll try them with skins on. Thanks again Phil for you work!
Have you tried the crank apple peeler/slicer? Just wondering.
No, but I should try it.
👍👍👍👍👍
It’s the beef broth. Rehydrate in need broth and see how they taste. That’s why McD fries aren’t vegan.
Hey Phil. Have you tried to par boil your potatoes before freeze drying? I have the same freeze dryer but I do left over meals and a lot of garden produce. Our home grown taters do not last long enough to freeze dry but I would like to try it.
I have not. Sounds like something to try.
Now I gotta try rehydrating my potatoes in a little salt and sugar water.
Brave new world!
McDonald's doesn't soak their fries in sugar water. They add sugar to their fry salt.
Could you add fruit fresh to the water when you rehydrate?
Yup, good idea
I was hoping that you would deep fry them when they were in the freeze dried state. I didn't expect that result of them not frying as when they're reconstituted. 😊
The third batch was fried in a freeze dried state.
@@Philat4800feet Yes, I just didn't expect the result of them just floating on the surface and not actually frying. It was really interesting for sure. 🙂
I was curious....You FD your French Fries with out Blanching? They didn't turn black like people say they will. Was there something in your water that you soaked in to prevent them from turning black?
You can use Fruit Fresh or a crushed up vitamin C to keep them from turning brown.
@@Philat4800feet thank you!
The plain water bowl looks like it has a lot of starch from reconstituting. I'm going to try with the sugar water and some lemon juice to see if the colour stays neutral.
Good ideas
I FD extra mashed potatoes (were very tasty) from Easter dinner: had a very unappetizing grittiness to them when rehydrated. What did I do wrong?
Even mash potatoes not FD are hard to bring back. Hot water, a bit of butter, and a lot of whipping may be needed.
I am wondering what would happen if you slightly par-cooked the french fries before freeze drying?
I have wondered that too. Something a little more than blanching.
What temperature and how many hours did it take to dry?
I can't remember, but most of my batches are around 24 hours with the following setting:
0 freeze point
0:00 extra freeze time
130 Temp
12:00 extra dry time
I prefreeze all my food. and prefreeze my FD
Did you tried them baked after you reconstituted them?
Most items were deep fried. baking would have been interesting and less fat than frying.
interesting.
DOES REHYDRATING WITH FRUIT FRESH KEEP THEM FROM OXIDIZING ?
I only use Fruit Fresh when I cut up and prepare the trays. I'm sure some of the ascorbic acid remains on the food for rehydration.
i dont have fruit fresh so i can use baking powder or vinegar
Hmmm, how about a vitamin C? Don't know about baking powder or vinegar.
Do you have to peel potatoes?
Yup
I always blanch my potatoes before FDing, they don’t turn brown.
I had a lot of suggestions to do that.
McDonald's par cooks all of there French Frys
Should have blended the freeze dried potatoes before making the mash.
Good thought
I think you need to blanch them
I agree on a small scale. But if you're going to do a lot of potatoes is it practical or could you use vitamin C or Fruit Fresh?
You didn't try parboiling the fries before freeze drying. That is how I got fries to work when I didn't have a freezedryer.
I normally blanch all my veggies except potatoes. Those I just use fruit fresh or a vitamin C pill. How long do you parboil for?
Hot Foam hahahaha
If dropping the fries into the oil removes the oxidation as shown, why bother with fruit fresh step? Drop on tray and freeze as the frying removes oxidation.
I didn't test them to see what would happen if the oxidation would occur before freeze drying and then frying. Good question.
Are you not concerned about the weight of the tray exceeding 2.5 pounds?
Nope, this is why:
th-cam.com/video/M4KsaS0Ss34/w-d-xo.html
Try an air fryer.
Fruit fresh? I use Salt, like Grandma
Salt has been used for thousands of years.
I am one of your biggest fans and love to watch your experimenting with materials as well as food. however this time you lost me. Sorry, but maybe give a healther version with the unhealth.
One, I would invest in a mandolin and an Air fryer.
Frankly you totally lost me when you peeled the pots added sugar, deep fryed in vegetable oil and compared your fries to McDonald's! You degraded a wonderfully balanced potato full of fiber, nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals; which makes for a perfect food for the Apocalypse and easy to grow. Pots got people through the great depression and you can bet no one was peeling the fiber, potassium vit C that kept them full and healthy off. I also have a Julian blade for my mandolin which makes it quicker to rehydrate and crispier in the air fryer. Truly I am not criticizing in a negative way but just a positive input on a healthier version. Thanks again for your videos.
Fries are my weakness.
@@Philat4800feet
Mine too, but you can make them healthy my friend! you'll love them, just give them a try. Sweet and purple potatoes too. The price of mandolin are very cheap and the air fryers have come way down. You can even buy an air oven these days. Try unpeeled Julian fries and you'll never go back.😀🤣 blessings
I appreciate your work but your video take too long you can short cut half of it. Thanks
Yup, working on it