do I need lard to make good chips?
#17
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#19
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#20

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No idea what an air fryer is.... I make chips the traditional way (which I assume is not with an 'air fryer'... and I'm not demonizing an air fryer, could be awesome). I always use peanut oil. 320 degrees F until blonde color. Drain, let cool, then 375F until finished. Malt vinegar and plenty of salt. Excellent.
#21
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No idea what an air fryer is.... I make chips the traditional way (which I assume is not with an 'air fryer'... and I'm not demonizing an air fryer, could be awesome). I always use peanut oil. 320 degrees F until blonde color. Drain, let cool, then 375F until finished. Malt vinegar and plenty of salt. Excellent.
Airfryers have the qualities of a really good convection (not forced air) oven but is smaller, more controllable - circulates around all of the product - and you can "shake" it.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
I use to do much the same except that I would blanche in boiling water until soft and then refrigerate and then double fry as you. If done correctly this is a perfect approach although some will debate their preference for sunflower or peanut ie whether it is neutrality or peanut flavour.
The airfryer approach I posted a long time ago from fresh allows you to use olive oil - something you cannot do with the traditional deep fry method because of the low flash point of olive oil. However this method allows the taste and caramelising of deep fry but give the flavour of your best olive oil. The only real compromise with this approach isn't the flavour but the shape of chip. It's better not to cut them long but to cut them into segments so they don't break when you shake! Shaking is a real advantage of airfrying compared to using a traditional oven.
The OP has confused me a little as he was someone seeming to wish to take trouble and achieve thr best result but morphed into a boil in the bag rice person ..... so it's difficult to focus and help!
There are cerain type of chips and I guess situations where to me the airfryer for chips is a perfectly acceptable and undetectable solution. Life is after all about acceptable compromises ie results v trouble. Getting 95% or more of what you are happy with for example.
Many of the McCain oven chip products when air-fried taste exactly like deep fried restaurant chips as the air-fryer does a perfect job with premium oven chips compared with using a traditional oven, which I find unacceptable. They crisp without drying and are moist and fluffy inside. The first time I tried the airfryer I was confused by it because I really couldn't tell the difference between those and deep fried whereas oven chip cooked in an oven have never been acceptable to me.
Most people cooking chips the traditional way will have good and bad chip days and then you have the fryer to keep clean and store and the oil to maintain. The majority of people expressing an opinion about the airfryer approach often do not appear to have tried it but are instead starting from a point of presuming it cannot be as good because perhaps they have tried oven chips cooked by another method or a different brand of fryer as these vary and have different results as well. I'm an experimenter, hence my conclusion.
My olive oil potatoes are a different thing to chips really ... more small roasties.
Last edited by cblaisd; Oct 19, 2014 at 6:59 pm Reason: Converted HUGE in-line image to a link. Please size pictures appropriately, thanks.
#22
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Originally Posted by uk1;
The OP has confused me a little as he was someone seeming to wish to take trouble and achieve thr best result but morphed into a boil in the bag rice person ..... so it's difficult to focus and help!
eg. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...se-slices.html
I'll paraphrase:
"It is interesting to see how your post about boil in the bag rice elicits such a variable range of attitudes ...........Some of it quite close-minded and snobbish"

Your own responses and attitude have been quite magnificent. My respects!
#23
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Only another week or two now and my Aga will be on for the winter.
Nothing beats cooking on an Aga.
Nothing beats cooking on an Aga.
#24
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Snob!

This is the corner of the kitchen with my side-Aga-range for fast rather than slow cooking .... with a picture of the much hated McCains Home Chips and a chicken ciabatta I have rather shamedly eaten this lunch time. Those chips looked alright and tatsed alright to wifey and me ....... .... but what do I know ... I yearn for round cheese for my burgers .....

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...F535B9706D.jpg
http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...9D491D7C37.jpg
Last edited by cblaisd; Oct 19, 2014 at 7:00 pm Reason: Converted HUGE inline images to links; please size images appropriately
#25
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First thing I'll cook is large jacket potatoes rubbed with olive oil, ground black pepper and garlic powder.
An hour in the top oven without foil sees them with a cripsy outer-shell and fluffy insides with a little melted butter.
Together with a steak and some curried baked beans.
My kids arrive home from school and when they see the Aga on they know instantly that will be their first meal on it.
And they love it.
An hour in the top oven without foil sees them with a cripsy outer-shell and fluffy insides with a little melted butter.
Together with a steak and some curried baked beans.
My kids arrive home from school and when they see the Aga on they know instantly that will be their first meal on it.
And they love it.
#26
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I bet you've got a 'bleedin labrador and a cocker dozing as well.
#27
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That earlier thread was hilarious, ridiculous enough to stick in my mind. My "research" took all the time I spent to enter "cheese" + "slices" in the search field.
Way less time than googling "Gouda" and "cumin" and then documenting 4 or 5 different internet sites out of the many that sell Cumin flavoured Gouda to spoon feed you with. Was doing enough of that with my then three year old.
Way less time than googling "Gouda" and "cumin" and then documenting 4 or 5 different internet sites out of the many that sell Cumin flavoured Gouda to spoon feed you with. Was doing enough of that with my then three year old.
#29
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All this over the humble chip 
Just to put another point of view across - I'd take McCain's Curly Fries over a straight chip any day.

Just to put another point of view across - I'd take McCain's Curly Fries over a straight chip any day.
#30
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It is truly amazing, sometimes, what sort of animus and invective can get hurled back and forth. If the sparring partners want to spar and one-up via PM, go for it. For now, this thread is closed on multiple FT Rules grounds.
cblaisd
Co-Moderator, Dining Buzz
cblaisd
Co-Moderator, Dining Buzz

