and done Oh different try hello I’m Hannah Hart and welcome to season two of edible history the show that explores the appetites of our ancestors today we’ll be dipping into the history of the French fry the humble potato you can mash them you can roast them or you can cut them into little strips and fry them up at hot oil so many delicious options from such a simple spud but have we always celebrated this tubular tuber to help me catch up on the history of these golden rods of deliciousness I’m talking with the president of the culinary historians of New York our friend from season one Cathy Kaufmann Cathy I’m so happy that you’re back and not only back but here for our premiere episode of season 2 today we’re gonna be talking about french fries how interesting could that history possibly be they’re potato sticks when they were first introduced into Europe really they were thought by some to be poisonous I can kind of understand that you take a potato out of the ground doesn’t necessarily look appealing so in this great french fry controversy who makes the first claim I’ve heard that they come from Belgium [Music] or something that looks pretty much like a french fry in mid 18th century France there are rumors that there were fried potatoes in Belgium and the Netherlands and also in Spain but it’s a question of the documentation right right the data started to come popular in different areas in Europe at different times the first recipe that we have is from a cookbook from around 1755 Deluca which is summers at port so we’re talking about a fairly elite cuisine it is attributed to aid the co-terminal he’s got a recipe in there that is for several different root vegetables you actually the batter that talks about has wine in it you deep-fry them and then you serve them either with mustard ice white sauce you mentioned the recipe calls for mustard that’s one of my favourite things what type of mustard would they be having at this time I don’t think there’s any question but that would be Dijon we were relatively short travel from Dijon to Paris the mustard makers have been famous in Dijon for centuries at this time and it’s delicious so what were they using to deep-fry at this time that depends on the day of the week at this point the Catholic Church still has its fast days and it’s fat days the fat days mean you can have meat the fast days means you have to eliminate meat from the diet you’ve got to keep in mind that this is a dish that’s being served for wealthy people so for a fat day you would be frying in lard whose fat duck fat that sort of thing on the lead days I didn’t even know you could fry and clarified butter so when the recipe we’ll be making today is there a specific way to shape the fries to cut them french fries because at this time symmetry and elegance of your knife work and the way food was actually presented at the table was Kathy it is such a pleasure to have you back I’m just frankly really excited to eat some french fries so I’ll see you later today’s recipe comes from the Year 1755 and from the book Luo super DeLuca ah was that it and my French now our first step in making french fries actually doesn’t involve the potatoes at all it involves the water we’re going to be boiling them in first we’re going to make a little bit of a paste using butter and flour lip-lock magnifique dddd dddd and we mush it all together buttery paste this recipe is off to a good start now that our butter and flour are well incorporated we add it to our water next is the salt now the recipe doesn’t call for a salt at any other point so we’re gonna add a pretty hearty helping next we’re gonna be adding our potatoes totally whole into our delicious buttery soup the recipe says it takes only a quarter of an hour to cook aka 15 minutes we’re gonna turn up by heat and practise more French pronunciation alright it looks like these bad boys are boiled we’re gonna take our potatoes out and set them aside to cool so we can peel them talk about a spud muffin now it’s time to peel our potatoes we won’t be using the standard peeling method with the peeler but instead because they’re so warm and steamy we’re actually gonna just use this towel and kind of slough off the skin oh there goes Oh [Music] does it look satisfying cuz it is alright that is the last of our petits now it’s time to move on to the slice so to slice our potatoes we’re going to be making the following series of guns cut the first down the middle then we’re going to establish how thick our potatoes are by slicing down the sides beautiful now as Kathy mentioned the cooking style at this time was pretty obsessed with symmetry and balance so this is our way of making sure that each of our potato batons are well shaped and de beautiful so we got our little stack and a half next and there you have it our first little set of soon-to-be French rice Ezrin for improvement let’s fry today might be the best the kitchen of edible history has ever smelled this is pure beautiful gorgeous gold and duck fat I’m salivating as I’m talking about it it smells so good all right our next step is to make our wine batter we’re just gonna be using a little bit of wine and a whole lot of flour it wouldn’t be French cooking without the wine give a little bit we’re gonna mix it up a little and then add some more [Music] the next step is to batter our fries we’re only gonna do a smaller portion at a time these are some fancy fancy french fries people you have to make each one with intention that give it a little of this we take our well battered fries give them a gentle shake and then very delicately okay yeah I feel like we’re really honoring the French fries right now they have opinions oh my god the batter is kind of puffing almost like a fish stick at this point you’re looking for this beautiful golden color I think if color looks great so we’re gonna take them out we’re gonna put them to the side I’m going to take another handful and we’re gonna fry up the rest of these it’s important to add your fries in small batches so you don’t change the temperature of your oil that’s something I learned today and explains why everything I’ve ever deep-fried has gone terribly wrong this was a real spectator sport emphasis on the tater okay that’s the last little bit of this the smell is so good can I please try them have you ever been so excited about something for so long that you’re almost nervous for that moment to finally come you feel like I’m taking a bite of edible history in this moment it is truly an honor to get to eat you in honor of our french fries we have a little French wine and a little French Dijon mustard this is exceptionally delightful for me as I am a huge mustard fan a little partial to wine – okay french fry give it a try it’s oh my god mmm I’m never gonna be able to go back this is the way a french fry is supposed to be I honestly thought that the batter would detract but honestly hmm the batter really provides a structure than a crunch and the french fry contained within whoo perfectly cooked I thought the duck fat smelled good that doesn’t compare to how it tastes and with the Dijon it’s a perfect pairing you’re perfect I’m complimenting you this Trump’s the modern French fry entirely Pete thank you so much for watching this episode of edible history come back and make sure you watch the rest of the season to see if anything stacks up to how good this french fry was [Music] Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNVUd_RllI0
