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Prefer crinkle cut myself.
Crinkle cut for eggs, beans
Chunky for fish, pies
Thin/French fries for burgers, chicken, and/or mayonnaise
Medium straight cut with sausages, chip butties, pies, mixed grill, curries, chillies etc
Crinkle-cut chips? Never in my house. Big fat oven chips for dirty treats, homemade oven-baked fat chips (made with King Edwards) with a nice meal.
Chunky Chipps? He's being forced to eat all the doughnuts! 😉
Crinkle cut for eggs, beans
Chunky for fish, pies
+1
Mrs Binners recently bought one of these. It caused a completely disproportionate level of excitement in the household
This is what lockdown has reduced us to

P7eaven nails it yet gain.
In fact in affairs of the stomach i think i am just going to use him as a bench mark*.
Also binners... Link please.
*Vegetarianism aside.
P7eaven nails it yet gain.
In fact in affairs of the stomach i think i am just going to use him as a bench mark.
He has not included a preference for steak 😕
Which would be chunky.
Or perhaps chips with steak is too working class and he prefers Anna,Dauphin or Voisin potatoes instead.
P7’s chip chart is clearly the standard against which all else shall be judged.
On a personal note oven chips always make me feel slightly short changed. Whereas roast potatoes don’t! But then I’ve never tried deep frying a roast potato so maybe I just know what I’m missing.
Sautéed potatoes for medium-rare steak, just like in NE France
They soak up the meat juices and are ideal for cleaning up any leftover mustard (should you be so foolish as to not eat it all)
Or perhaps chips with steak is too working class and he prefers Anna,Dauphin or Voisin potatoes instead.
I’m weirdly relieved not to know what those French potatoes are, if only for being forced to indulge in your inverted snobbery, earned no doubt by your knowledge of said potatoes and more importantly your reckoning of said knowledge. That’s like a boomerang fashioned from poetic irony 🪃😳
Does that absolve me of having only included steak in the ‘mixed grill’ for economy?
I get that some people like chunky with steak, grills etc but I think those giant chips aren’t normally crispy enough, and so seem to soak up too much of those juices on the plate. This makes the underside of the chips sort of soggy and discoloured. Good information, I believe*
*Notwithstanding someone’s unkindly-offered estimate of one’s ‘class’ boundaries.
Sincerely,
H. Arumph
Knott Avynet
Goodby
CUN 3VA


I think those giant chips aren’t normally crispy enough, and so seem to soak up too much of the juices on the plate.
Generally yes... but if people can do good chunky chips they are amazing. Theres a little pub near me that is the venue for failed ventures - its beautifully located and between bankruptcies it tends to be great but over the last 10 years its been closed more than open. One of the owners did great food but in particular did stunning big fat fluffy chips that were still delicately crisp on the outside. They were really chunky - to the extent the first time a plate of them was put in front of me my heart sank as I was expecting them to be crap - They outshone everything else on the plate even though everything else was great.
Still went bust though so I only got to experience them twice. I think they are the best chips I've ever eaten that were mine - because as we know... the ultimate chips are 'other people's chips.'
Next time you're making oven chips... squeeze a whole lemon over them and sprinkle what looks like far too much oregano on them before they go in the oven. Thank me later.
Personal preference is for chunky chips, but they need to be par boiled first, then drained, then shaken vigorously shaken/stirred in the pan to ‘fluff up’ which brings out the crispy crunchiness.
I get that some people like chunky with steak, grills etc but I think those giant chips aren’t normally crispy enough, and so seem to soak up too much of those juices on the plate
The secret for chunky chips seems to be to cook them 2 or 3 times.
Oven chips are the devil's work. Air fried is semi acceptable but deep fried medium cut as a general purpose chip FTW. Agree that crinkle cut go best with eggs as they scoop up more yolk
Oven chips are the devil’s work.
I used to think so.
Then experimented with a no-blanch, seasoned batch. Think I cracked it after about three goes. Findings:
1. Regular straight-cut OR crinkle-cut chips, from floury white potatoes. Older = better
2. Cut into medium/thick (index finger-thickness) straight chips
3. Place in pan and wash under tap a few times (repeatedly draining pan through strainer) until the pan water is clear.
4. Dry chips thoroughly with teacloth/s
5. Get a big pan/container with lid and add:
3-4 tablespoons of oil
1 x dessert spoon garlic powder
3 x teaspoons ground sweet paprika (smoked if prefer)
Decent shake of salt
6. Add the chips to the pan, replace place lid and then shake vigorously until all the chips look coated evenly with oil/seasoning
7. Preheat centre oven tray which has been lined with baking/greaseproof parchment. Preheat to 200C
8. Shake chips in pan once more then spread chips evenly over the oven tray.
9. Cook at 200c for about 25 mins then turn chips using spatula
10. Return tray to oven and cook for another 15 mins
11. Turn again and cook one last time for another 10-15+ mins checking for crispness.
12. Drain on kitchen paper if required then serve with vinegar
They are Pretty Damned Good. Have to be going crispy though for best results, so cooking time can be a chore. Worth it though, IMO.
I’m weirdly relieved not to know what those French potatoes are, if only for being forced to indulge in your inverted snobbery, earned no doubt by your knowledge of said potatoes and more importantly your reckoning of said knowledge. That’s like a boomerang fashioned from poetic irony
Thats a bit harsh, I couldnt at the time remember what they were called so took the recipe from my Ceserani and Kinton Practical cookery book i got when I started catering school(C&G 7061/1,706/2 706/3) Didn't start as a Butcher you know.
But there are about 50 different recipes ,too many to know exactly the one I was thinking of, which is layered in a cookie cutter and in that to a saute pan to keep it together. But I couldn't remember the name of it. Still not sure actually. It's required reading and ownership, but I've only scant memories of the entire list these days.
Was merely being humerous. Didn't know that so upset you. I apologize for offending you.
Nor am I intending to offend anyone that the process of cooking them multiple times is called blanching.
If that helps anyone google so they can try it for themselves.
Thumbs up mate, best of.
Sautéed potatoes for medium-rare steak, just like in NE France
They soak up the meat juices and are ideal for cleaning up any leftover mustard (should you be so foolish as to not eat it all)
God I’m hungry now.
Was merely being humerous. Didn’t know that so upset you. I apologize for offending you.
Dang it, I forgot the emoticon 😉 ie was mock upset, in the spirit of humour.
All good, no offence was taken at all. I find the internet a tricky medium for my ineffective/nuanced jocularity. Almost as tricky as real life!
Nor am I intending to offend anyone that the process of cooking them multiple times is called blanching.
It was going so well, but multiple blanchings are (ahem) beyond the pale, unless oil-blanching
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46677/what-is-the-difference-in-blanching-and-parboiling
Get thee to a chippery!
Crinkle-cut chips are rank so I’m with Johndoh.
Crinkle-cut chips are rank
Objectively utter nonsense. They have almost identical flavour profile as do straight cut chips, except moreso. So I’m with science!
Crinkle cut are for children. When was the last time you saw them in a decent pub or restaurant?
Berni Inns do not count. Neither do Harvester and Wetherspoons
When was the last time you saw them in a decent pub or restaurant?
1987
Dang it, I forgot the emoticon 😉 ie was mock upset, in the spirit of humour.
All good, no offence was taken at all. I find the internet a tricky medium for my ineffective/nuanced jocularity. Almost as tricky as real life!
Heaven sake chap, think nothing more on it.
Crinkle-cut chips are rank
Racist. It's all the same potato underneath 😉
When was the last time you saw them in a decent pub or restaurant?
1987
That feels like it was the last time I ate in a restaurant. 🙁
Thank me later.
Thank you. For ruining my chips... made them all soggy 😠
Emotional blackmail that is
When was the last time you saw them in a decent pub or restaurant?
When was the last time you ate eggs, beans and chips in a decent pub or restaurant? I get that they aren’t trending, and most people remember them from childhood. But home-made (not frozen) they taste (objectively) delicious if you already like straight cut. I don’t care about people watching me eat/people judging the grownupness/trend of food. That’s why I can still enjoy eggs beans and chips . Crinkle-cut. 100% not rank.
I think a Mac Donalds meal to be utterly infantile tho 😉 and their ‘fries’ 🤡. What the hell are those?
No beans but gammon, egg & chips
Mmmm
Triple cooked chips - so wrong
If the chef cannot cook them properly the first time why let them try another couple!
Whatever next, triple cooked steak, triple cooked lasagna!
The worlds gone mad
Thank you. For ruining my chips… made them all soggy
Did you forget to put the oven on?
Objectively utter nonsense. They have almost identical flavour profile as do straight cut chips, except moreso. So I’m with science!
I think you need to have a quiet but firm word with yourself!
The ingredients are the same but the surface area to mass ratio is very different. Straight cut have the optimal ratio, which leads to:
a). Better mouth-feel as ideal crispness is delivered as the chip does not cool the oil down too much. A porous chip is a shite chip.
b). The ideal amount of contact with chips and tastebuds, which obviously affects flavour - and in this case negatively.
c). Too much surface area, absorbing too much of the flavouring of choice - again leading to a situation of poor taste as the ratio of flavouring to potato becomes unbalanced and means the flavour is too biased in favour of the flavouring of choice.
Count yourself educated. 😁😉😁
Did you forget to put the oven on?
well, then they woulda been cold n hard
That’s why I can still enjoy eggs beans and chips . Crinkle-cut. 100% not rank.
Wolfie Smith would be proud of you.
Triple cooked chips – so wrong
If the chef cannot cook them properly the first time why let them try another couple!
Theres a wiki entry on them. Apparently it was developed by Heston Blumenthal.
Too much surface area, absorbing too much of the flavouring of choice
Until the chip disintegrates under the vinegar load there is no such thing as to much flavour on a chip. Chips don't taste nice plain* they need flavour. They are mainly a medium for flavour coneyance. Like pasta is different for different sauces chips too can serve a different purpose. Crinkles hold a runny yoke well when dipped. They also promote crunchy bits everyone knows are the mutts nutts.
*I mean they sort of do but even a bit of salt and they improve exponentially.
Crinkle cut for eggs, beans
Chunky for fish, pies
Thin/French fries for burgers, chicken, and/or mayonnaise
Medium straight cut with sausages, chip butties, pies, mixed grill, curries, chillies etc
Nailed it. I would also add in home-made jacket wedges served with yoghurt and mint raita as a beer-accompanying snack! Waistline issues will follow 🤣
Heaven forbid someone mentions curly fries ...
Count yourself educated
Indeed.
a. No
b. I never knowingly swallow chips without first chewing.
c. Thick-cut will drink 1/3 of a bottle of vinegar before you get them to your mouth. French fries do not require or deserve vinegar. Straight cut will often (if too crisp) repel vinegar. Crinkle cut will hold vinegar and ideally use less of it. If you knowingly over-season your chips on account of having not accounted for format - then you may now count yourself (counter-)educated.
Heaven forbid someone mentions curly fries …
Hell has homemade chip butties, a dance floor sticky with beer, wine flowing from naughty statues into real glasses that were blown by proud, elvish glassmakers. A working Marshall stack, and (ofcourse) - all the best music.
Heaven has curly fries. A big laminated menu. Sachets. A small, dead, soggy-skinned bird apparently belonging to ‘Hunter’, and a plastic-coated cardboard bucket of iced diet cola. Music* from tinny speakers high up in the pubrestaurant warehouse roof and Marshall stack theme printed on the wallpaper.
*
We very rarely eat chips, and personally I find oven chips so disappointing so if we're having a decent steak I'll do my take on triple cooked chunky chips. There's a lot of faff, but I'm convinced they're worth the effort.
Start off with a big baking potato variety. Something floury like a Maris Piper or King Edward.
Peel and then cut into 1"-1 1/2" thick chips the whole length of the potato. Put into water with a teaspoon of sugar or a squeeze of golden syrup. Bring to boil and simmer for at least ten minutes. They need to be cooked almost all the way through.
Drain - you'll need to handle them carefully as they'll break up if you're too rough. Let them air dry then put them in the freezer to chill for half an hour.
Next, heat oil in your fryer of choice to 130 degrees. I prefer to use a wok. Lower the chips in carefully and let them bubble away for as long as it takes for the edges to start to turn a hint of golden brown. This takes several minutes.
Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Then put them back in the freezer for about an hour.
Finally, heat the oil up to 180 degrees and lower the chips in. Cook until they're a good even brown colour.
personally I find oven chips so disappointing
I’m totally not disappointed by my (^ recipe upthread) homemade oven chips. But they are somewhat of a chore if pushed for time. And I still prefer deep-fried. Have yet to test air-fried.
It’s weird, because growing up in the 1970s my experience was that all chips were ‘homemade’. Either at home or from the local chip shop. Fresh spuds - peeled, cut and fried. That was chips. No vacuum-packed, frozen etc.
Have since tried to like frozen oven fries more, as they are much more convenient. Have (so far) failed in that endeavour.
1″-1 1/2″ thick chips the whole length of the potato

That’s catering-vinegar sized 😉
I'd call myself a food snob, and to be honest I prefer the frozen McCain's Oven French Fries that I cook at home to the vast majority of chips I'm served in restaurants.
I find anything that is not a french fry normally turns out to be a crap, soggy disappointment.
Exceptions to the rule ;
- Proper chippy chips where a mixture of soggy and smaller crispy ones is what you are aiming for.
- Triple Cooked actually out of a Heston Blumental kitchen. They are fantastic, all the imitations I have tried have been shocking.
Circe of hell stuff;
- Sweet Potato fries. Seemingly only available as under-cooked, soggy, oil-absorbing things or burnt, soggy, oil-absorbing things. "Would you like to upgrade to sweet potato fries"? F"$%^ off.
- Jenga'ed. If they are uniform enough to stack they are going to be awful every time.
- Nandos chips. I really don't understand how they get them so bad. Not thin enough to be fries, not chunky enough to be chips, but never ever a hint of crispness.
I’d call myself a food snob, and to be honest I prefer the frozen McCain’s Oven French Fries that I cook at home to the vast majority of chips I’m served in restaurants.
I’m not a food snob (ie will eat anything, don’t care if inexpensive) and do not call myself one. And McCain’s oven chips 1. taste weird (not really of potatoes, more of an indescribable aftertaste) and 2. give me acid reflux. For those reasons I’m out (if I have a choice in the matter, which 9 times out of ten for family get togethers/pub meals is not the case)
Cheapest pub meals locally used (til changeover) to peel and fry their own chips*.
RIP Trevor.
*And they didn’t even do it in an ironic hipster way. It was £2 for a big bowl, and used to go down great with a buttie and pint, or egg, gammon and peas.
In (say) Bristol, such a moderate treat would cost you the best part of a beard-groom and trim and yet still be inferior to Trevor’s £2 bowl of chips.
We as a country made a few wrong turns along the way, in my estimation.
#trytoohard
#gammonisoverratedtoo
#gammonisoverratedtoo
burn the witch !
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
For those who dismiss oven chips, give these a go
Absolute game-changer

You can keep you faffing about 😀
For those who dismiss oven chips, give these a go
Absolute game-changer
Yep, see my post, near top of page 1. Just don't make em all soggy with poncy lemon juice 😉
You can keep
you faffing aboutyour ‘cooking’ 😀
FTFY 😉
PS I’ll give them a go (in the interests of assessing wild-sounding claims) but will keep Omeprazole and independent party/ref nearby for a fair shake at it.
Also, if I were to adopt the frozen oven chip model, would it lead to overconsumption because ‘easier’ tastes better after all? You see, home-cooking is possibly my last hurdle to morbid obesity (where self control fails) 😬
Absolute game-changer
They look like shit fish fingers.
"Shit fish fingers". Yum yum
They look like shit fish fingers.
And that's a bad thing, because...?
A massively chunky chip is a bit like a roast potato no?
Generally prefer fries for most occasions, in fact that's all we buy for the freezer, but will lower myself to normal oven chips every now and then, maybe even crinkle cut if it's rock bottom. Curly fries do get a look in every now and then
Our new house has a range cooker, the oven is SO much more powerful than our previous, pretty good oven. Makes a big difference to speed and cookedness
A massively chunky chip is a bit like a roast potato no?of
Depends. It’s also heading in the direction of ‘wedges’. Allegedly so-titled because they’ve been known to drive a ‘wedge’ between previously good friends, even married couples where oven-chips have been the background for one, and oven-wedges the other*
* Lives of countless young British men and women have been destroyed because they have dared to ‘love across divides’ defined by taste and community. The taste system is among the world’s oldest forms of social stratification.
I have no steak in the argument. I like my roasted and/or baked potatoes cooked and prepared certain other ways. I prefer to retain chips as chips and view ‘wedges’ simply as some kind of ‘affectato’ to be generally ignored (given a choice/their own thread)
wedges do have their place - easy to make, healthier than chips and if you sprinkle on the right spices they can be lovely with mayo
Definitely not a food connoisseur, but I am Scottish hence have standards when it comes to chips. McCain Chunky oven chips are the only chip in our house.
Peel and then cut into 1″-1 1/2″ thick chips
Are you high? Those aren't chips, they're whole potatoes. Do you mean centimetres?
I prefer to use a wok.
Nope. Definitely high. The alternative is too appalling to countenance.
I have no steak in the argument.
Please tell me that was intentional. 👏
😐
I prefer to use a wok.
Really??? I prefer to use the cheapo deep fat fryer I bought for putolining chains...
McCain Chunky oven chips are the only chip in our house.

Are you high? Those aren’t chips, they’re whole potatoes. Do you mean centimetres?
Did you miss the bit where the swear filter didn't allow me to type enormous big f8ck-off baking potatoes? These things are huge, and although I've never been tempted to build them into a jenga tower, it would certainly be possible. Which is why I use a wok....... much easier to lower them in carefully, turn them over and generally faff and fuss over them.
P7eaven we got mcain oven chips the other day. They're gluten free and all the things that normally scream "these don't taste of anything" but in actual fact. Pretty decent with none of the weird taste.
Did you miss the bit...
You're making chips an inch and a half thick?
You’re making chips an inch and a half thick?
Somewhere between an inch and an inch and a half. Using big baking potatoes. In a wok.
Is this apparent incredulity actually going anywhere, or would you like me confirm something else?