Best French Fries!

A blog post about French fries from a butcher shop, weird right? We don’t offer much for carbohydrates in our shop other than beer, but there is a connection. This past weekend a tried an experiment to make the kind of French fries that made McDonald’s famous. That’s where the link to the butcher shop lies. Back before McDonalds was a household name, they were frying their French fries in beef tallow. It was this beef tallow that gave the fries the crispy, crunchy, outside and the soft fluffy inside that put McDonalds on the map. McDonalds no longer makes their French fries with beef tallow, but you can do it yourself at home. As I mentioned in my post last week, we make our own beef tallow here at the butcher shop using only locally sourced beef. By the way, my family sampled the fries and they all agreed that there was something special about them. The tallow was also great for frying our chicken wings.

If you’re interested in learning more about the McDonald’s beef tallow French fries and how they lost the very thing that made them famous, listen to a podcast about it from one of my favorite authors Malcom Gladwell. Here’s the link to the podcast: Revisionist History Podcast

Pro Tip: If you want to make these great French fries at home, start with a bag of fast food style French fries, a couple pints of tallow, and salt. Once the tallow is completely melted and to the correct temperature (about 365 °F), drop a handful of fries in the oil for 3 minutes. After three minutes, scoop the fries out and place on a paper towel to soak up the extra grease, add salt and enjoy!