I seem to recall that, during the whole "Freedom Fries" thing, the French issued a collective Gallic snicker and said "stupeed Americahns, eet was les Belgiques who invented the frite, not les French."

And, in case you were wondering, the best frites in the metro area are served Chez Waitman on those rare occassions when Mrs. B decides she can stand to allow that much deep-frying on the kitchen and I decide to risk fingertip and palm on the mandoline. The thumb heals, the memories remain.

Mr. Shorter could give you a run for your money. His frites are perfect.

I am with Mrs. B on the deep frying though. It's seriously a bad idea without a adequate ventilation system.

I use the 2-stage method suggested by Russ Parsons in "How to Read a French Fry." The initial fry is at 325F. The second at 375F. A digtial read thermometer is real handy when doing this. (In fact, I just made some on Saturday evening).

I used russett potatoes and peanut oil.

We do our first fry a little lower, maybe 275, although the temperature of the oild fluctuates pretty significantly when you dump a handful of 'taters straight from the icewater into the pot. I'm not persuaded that the precision makes a ton of difference compared to greater necessity of adopting the two-step , low-high strategy.

I agree with this statement. I actually heated the oil to aobut 335 before I put the potatoes in. The temp dropped to about 275 and stayed there for quite a while before starting to move back up. They really brown up quick when you add the pre-cooked potatoes to the higher temp oil.