Alternative names – Chips, finger chips, fries, frites, hot chips, steak fries, potato wedges, wedges.
French fries, or simplyย friesย (North American English),ย chipsย (British and Commonwealth English,ย Hiberno-English),ย finger chipsย (Indian English), orย french-fried potatoes, areย batonnetย orย allumette-cutย deep-friedย potatoes.
Course – Side dish or snack, rarely as a main dish
Place of origin – Belgiumย orย Franceย (disputed)
Serving temperature – Hot
Main ingredients –
Potatoes
Oil
Variations – Curly fries, shoestring fries,ย steak fries,ย sweet potato fries,ย Chili cheese fries,ย poutine
Other information – Often served withย saltย and a side ofย ketchup,ย mayonnaise,ย vinegar,ย barbecue sauce, or other sauce
Health aspects –
French fries primarily containย carbohydratesย (mostly in the form ofย starch) and protein from the potato, and fat absorbed during the deep-frying process. Salt, which containsย sodium, is almost always applied as a surface seasoning. For example, a large serving of french fries at McDonald’s in the United States is 154 grams. The 510ย caloriesย come from 66 g of carbohydrates, 24 g of fat, 7 g ofย proteinย and 350ย mg of sodium.
Experts have criticized french fries for being very unhealthy. According to Jonathan Bonnet, MD, in aย TIMEย magazine article, “fries are nutritionally unrecognizable from a spud” because they “involve frying, salting, and removing one of the healthiest parts of the potato: the skin, where many of the nutrients and fiber are found.”ย Kristin Kirkpatrick, RD, calls french fries “…an extremely starchy vegetable dipped in a fryer that then loads on the unhealthy fat, and what you have left is a food that has no nutritional redeeming value in it at all.”ย David Katz, MD states that “French fries are often the super-fatty side dish to a burgerโand both are often used as vehicles for things like sugar-laced ketchup and fatty mayo.”
Frying french fries inย beef tallow,ย lard, or other animal fats addsย saturated fatย to the diet. Replacing animal fats with tropical vegetable oils, such asย palm oil, simply substitutes one saturated fat for another. For many years partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were used as a means of avoiding cholesterol and reducing saturated fatty acid content, but in time theย trans fatย content of these oils was perceived as contributing to cardiovascular disease.ย Starting in 2008, many restaurant chains and manufacturers of pre-cooked frozen french fries for home reheating phased out trans fat containing vegetable oils.
French fries contain some of the highest levels ofย acrylamidesย of any foodstuff, and experts have raised concerns about the effects of acrylamides on human According to theย American Cancer Society, it is not clear as of 2013ย whether acrylamide consumption affects people’s risk of getting cancer.ย A meta-analysis indicated that dietary acrylamide is not related to the risk of most common cancers, but could not exclude a modest association for kidney, endometrial or ovarian cancers.ย A lower-fat method for producing a French fry-like product is to coat “Frenched” or wedge potatoes in oil and spices/flavoring before baking them. The temperature will be lower compared to deep frying, and which also reduces acrylamide formation.
First avaliable –
The first commercially available chips in the UK were sold by Mrs. ‘Granny’ Duce in one of theย West Ridingย towns in 1854.ย Aย blue plaqueย inย Oldhamย marks the origin of the fish-and-chip shop, and thus the start of the fast food industry in Britain.ย Inย Scotland, chips were first sold inย Dundee: “in the 1870s, that glory of Britishย gastronomyย โ the chip โ was first sold by Belgian immigrant Edward De Gernier in the city’s Greenmarket”.ย In Ireland the first chip shop was “opened by Giuseppe Cervi”, an Italian immigrant, “who arrived there in the 1880s”.ย It is estimated that in the UK, 80% of households buy frozen chips each year.