MAKING TALLOW FRIES AT HOME

Yes, this is possible.

Eat up! They're now good for you.

We know it changes all the time; however, the latest nutritional wisdom holds that seed oils (canola, soybean et. al.) are evil and deadly, and that one best fries food in either clarified butter, pure-grade (NOT extra virgin) olive oil, pork lard... or (gasp!) beef tallow. The mostly midwestern fast food chain STEAK 'n' SHAKE recently made headlines by renouncing seed oils in favor of beef tallow for cooking their french fries. Since there's no STEAK 'n' SHAKE near me and I no longer drive that far from home, I had to figure out how to make them at home.

First I needed a fryer... a "compact" fryer, as I only wished to prepare enough french fries for the two of us. And since AI seemingly reads our minds, I suddenly started getting pop-ups for such appliances. Here's what I bought--

Yes, it came from The Country That Manufactures All That Cheap Crap, a.k.a. China. But it is nonetheless a high-quality appliance made from 304 Stainless Steel. The brand name is unimportant, as many different iterations of this version now appear in one's online search.

Next, I needed tallow, and a company called SULU proved to be a great resource. We recommend splurging for a 7-lb. bucket. Keep in mind that the tallow can be filtered after each use and re-used a few times.

Fat is solid at room temperature, while oil is liquid. Tallow is therefore fat, but it melts readily when heated... so for our purposes here we shall refer to it as oil.

Next, a recipe.

COOK'S ILLUSTRATED/AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN magazine has long been a great reference for well-tested recipes and techniques, and they gave the humble french fry their full treatment almost thirty years ago. I pay for a subscription so you don't have to; CI/ATK's recipe calls for Russet (baking) potatoes, a mandoline for slicing them, an icewater bath, and two separate stages of cooking. We've successfully streamlined it as follows:

Melt the tallow in your stovetop compact fryer, enough to fill it halfway.

While the tallow is melting, peel and chop your Russet potatoes as if for homefries rather than french fries. (Trust me.)

Cut off a tiny corner of potato and drop it in the oil. When it starts to visibly sizzle in the oil, add the potatoes. (Pro-tip: Do NOT drop the potatoes into the oil; rather, fill the mesh basket with the potatoes and then gently lower it into the fryer.) Now, instead of frying the potatoes twice at two different temperatures, simply start them at a low temperature-- just enough to sizzle them for 10-12 minutes-- and then raise the temperature so the oil is bubbling more furiously. Cook the potatoes to the desired color... you'll know it when you see it.

When cooked as desired, raise the mesh basket from the oil, shake off excess oil, and then let dump the potatoes onto a paper towel-covered plate to cool.

Serving Suggestions:

Use a mortar & pestle to grind your favorite salt (Himalayan Pink? Kosher? Sea Salt?) into a fine powder. It will stick to the potatoes much better.

And then there's ketchup. Our talented webmistress WinH. posted her favorite homemade ketchup recipe a while back. It is highly recommended. Alternatively, search your favorite upscale food market for high-quality organic ketchup... made WITHOUT high fructose corn syrup, which is every bit as evil and deadly as the seed oils we are now so diligently avoiding.