Talk: French fries
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- US french fries are British chips.
- US potato chips are British crisps.
Reminds me of:
- US cookies are British biscuits.
- US biscuits are British crackers.
- US crackers are British white people?
- In America a person will sit on their ass. In Britain we may sit on an ass, but not neccesarily one's own ass. We would however sit on our own bums. In America sitting on a bum would be considered impolite, unwise and unhealthy, so a polite person would probably talk about sitting on their fanny. In Britain sitting on your fanny would be considered either uncomfortable or impossible (depending on gender), and would certainly not be polite.
like totally cut from the article:
On March 11, 2003 the cafeteria menus in the three United States House of Representatives office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries" in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's opposition to the the U.S. position on Iraq. French toast was also changed to freedom toast (During World War I, in a similar move, attempts were made to replace the word sauerkraut with the term liberty cabbage and frankfurter with hot dog in menus and in popular speech: only the latter was successful. During World War II, French toast replaced German toast as the popular term for that dish.)
Many Europeans dismissed the changes of March 2003 as 'immature gimmackry', in the words of an Irish newspaper. Several American congressmen have agitated for more serious and less symbolic actions to be taken against the French. Others have criticised the behaviour as attempted intimidation of a nation who is entitled to hold a different point of view on an international issue to the United States. Suggestions that some European states should boycott American products and companies such as MacDonalds and that European television stations boycott American programmes have been criticised as stooping to the level of
- I'm Belgian, and I can tell you that the France governement did confirm on to the press, during the Iraqi invasion:"Actually, french fries are NOT a French product, it comes from Belgium." So it was ignorance that made people change the names of a product.
It's like so out of place to even talk about all that anti-French stuff, you know what I mean? Cuz we need a more awesome segue to like, introduce it, okay? I mean like maybe an anti-French sentiment article or American attitudes towards France or like whatever, you know? --Uncle Ed 21:22 Mar 12, 2003 (UTC)
- Ed, let me state that I don't think french people would feel very happy with the title you gave to that page. I do not. It may be a good title in terms of communication ("percutant" would we say)...but it is slightly unfairly lacking some information. In short : from what I read in the news (your news, mostly cnn, fox is really too depressing), there is indeed a very strong anti-french sentiment. But this sentiment is expressed by *americans* only (are mostly by *far*). The title of this page anti-French sentiment gives the feeling it is something much more general. Anthere
- btw, did you guys decided to rename french kiss to freedom kiss too ? That would be tasty !
- french kiss didn't bother annyone as it didn't occur in the economy; it was not a 'French' product they could import, or better, stop importing :-/
well french fries have a different name in capitalist land, it should be mentioned. Just not ALL of it should be here. Susan Mason
- On March 11, 2003 the cafeteria menus in the three U.S. House of Representatives office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries" in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's opposition to the the U.S. position on Iraq.
This section seems like it might be vaguely encyclopedic. I suggest waiting a month and seeing if it still seems important then. Martin
why wait a month? Anything the House does is encyclopedic. Susan Mason
Yeah, like I totally agree that the "menus were changed" part should stay in the article. When I said I "totally" cut it I wasn't all like "completely" cut it it, it just totally wasn't completly pedia-worthy so I like was all get this out in a hurry dude! The "rebuke" part is bitchin'! --Uncle Ed
So like right on, the menu part stays and the rest belongs in its own arty! Susan Mason
Party hearty, here's your arty: --Surfer Dude 21:56 Mar 12, 2003 (UTC)
- You two aren't helping attempts to claim this is a serious encyclopedia... that's like, so totally not cool... ;-) Martin
Isn't renaming "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" saying that "French" is synonymous with "Freedom"? This action seems more like a compliment to the French than an insult.
- doesnot everyone knows that french fries are from Belgium ? If so, the compliment is for Belgium people.
- Not Belgium, but Belgian, and not 'French fries', but 'french fries'. No capitals :)
But since it is clearly indicated that the first change of that type was done in reference to german sausage changed to freedom sausage (or anything similar) just after WWI, I doubt you could say it is a compliment :-)
Anthere comments on the name of anti-French sentiment, suggesting something like American anti-French sentiment. Of course, then we have to have an edit war over whether that's best, or whether we should have American anti-French bigotry or American anti-French racism. Next someone has to create French anti-Americanism in the name of "balance", and we'll all have a competition to see which page we can make largest.
Or does that only apply for pages concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict? ;-) Martin
sigh, yes.
Fortunately, I know nothing about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, so I won't bother anyone there :-)
Yes, I suppose I would be alone editing the French anti-Americanism. So...in short, what you suggest - for the sake of peace - is that we just pretend that Anti-Americanism does not exist ? That makes sense...Okay, let's concentrate very hard...
- A better solution might be to have an article on American-French relations, which can discuss how French-American relationships have waxed and (recently) waned over recent history. Just an idea.Martin
- very good proposition. Maybe part of this article could be the content of anti-French sentiment ?
- Is this even relevant to french fries ????
Given the galloping rate of obesity on the US, the snart thing to do would have been to simply remove them from the menu and eat something healthier. Still. That would be too simple. -- Tarquin 23:16 Mar 13, 2003 (UTC)
- I'm sure the good Congressmen from Idaho wouldn't have approved... --Brion
- Not relevant. This is not a discussion board for such matters.
btw
the fried potatoes are called French fries because they were once fried in the French manner (that is to say frying them two times with a small pause in the middle)
- That's one of the explanations, but since officialy it doesn NOT refer to a country, what does it still have to do with France ? Nothing besides the resemblance of the name. :)
We still do that, cooking in two times...much much better...it stays softer in the middle, and real crisp on the outside, while if you cook them in only one batch, they are spongy with oil. You don't do that ?
- Only in north of France they (still ) do that a lot, here in Belgium, almost everybody does it like that.
"According to culinary celebrity Alton Brown, Belgian pommes frites are usually fried in horse fat.". I find this difficult to believe. Horses are generally lean creatures. Mintguy 15:30 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC)
- plus, it is much better in goose fat or duck fat...
- I didn't know but it seems it's right the Belgian used animal fat. The most precise receipt 30% pork fat (saindoux), 60% beef fat a,d 10% neck horse fat.
- Reference in French : http://www.frites.be/article.cfm?ContentID=636
- Ericd 16:39 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC)
- Here is the actual quote from the sidebar on page 110 of Mr. Brown's fine book, I'm Just Here for the Food. (The parentheses and linkage are mine.)
- The Belgians are even more into pommes frites than we (Americans) are and they swear by horse fat. I've been to Belgium, I've had the frites, and my money's on Mr. Ed. Horse fat is, however, oddly absent from the American supermarket shelf.
- I'm from Belgium, and yes, it might be that your fries have been baked in 100% horse fat; that is, if you went to a classy restaurant that claims to make Belgian fries.
But i can honnestly tell you, step out of the touristic area, and you'll find us baking it, with oil for sure, but with more natural oil. (healthier, like arachide (=nuts) or sunflower oil)
- If someone from Belgium could confirm this, I would be quite pleased. --Two halves 05:44 Apr 23, 2003 (UTC)
- Just did so :)
I'm from Belgium.
Fry twice is a `must'. Many different types of oil/fat are used. Temperatures to be used depend on which type. Classical is so-called ``ossewit" (dutch; lit. eng. transl.= oxen white), which consists (only?) of beef-fat. It is used because of it's good temperature resistance and good taste of the resulting fries. It's less easy to clean the frying device though. This is why many people use nut-oil (arachide), which also gives good results.
I'm not familiar with Wikipedea-editing, so more experienced users can put this info in the article, if they think it relevant.
- Hi, as fellow Belgian, I can tottaly confirm that. :)
--EQ
Yes, I'm a belgian too, and the rumour about hores fat is false. Traditionally we use fat from oxen, but nowadays, a nut oil or sunflower oil is preferred for health reasons, and also because oxen fat is actually quite expensive. Belgan fries are made from peeled potatoes, cut into square strips of about 1 centimeter by one centimeter. It is indeed so that Belgian fries are fried twice, once at about 140 to 160 degrees Celsius, and once at 180 to 190 degrees Celsius. I've modified the article a little to represent this.
Maybe we should also add that we Belgians claim to have invented the fries, somewhere just after the independence of Belgium, in Antwerp.
- We claimed it. And the name of 'french' fries came later on, given probebly by British or american soldiers during the war. Altough potatoes were used much much earlier, we even used it in the 1500 hundreds, we didn't made fries of them yet!
Last time I knew, "french fries" were originally "frenched fries", "french" being a verb meaning "cut into thin strips".
Wouldn't you know, I just added that to the article without even seeing your comment. I must be psychic. GusGus 04:46, 2004 Mar 7 (UTC)
I don't want to get into an argument about potato based products with different names either side of the atlantic again but... if you don't fry chips twice they don't work. Fries supplied to fast food restaurants have already been friend once. Mintguy (T) 01:35, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Origin of the name, a new theory
The following was added in the Belgium article, but it should definitely come here. It seems possible [1] (well I dunno really, yet another theory?):
- "The origin, and explanation for the name 'French Fries', both are to be found in Belgium, oppose to what most people beleive, and that it comes from France. It was named after language and name of the man, namely Frits, who made them during the WO and served it to English speaking soldiers who were fighting in the southern part of Belgium. Hence why they are called 'French fries', as people speak French in that part of Belgium. And 'Frits', a Belgian that lived there, changed into 'fries'."
Can anybody confirm this? -- Edcolins 20:12, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)
- Hi there, I'll will confirm this for you. By the simple reason, that I added those extra lines to 'Belgium'.
- I added those lines back then, and now (4/8/04) I re-read that part, noticing my lines have been removed again, and have some things to say about what I find posted here:
- 1) Opposite to what a Belgian did say above, it was not invented in Antwerp, altough, the person might have lived his whole life in Antwerp !
- (In fact, I beleive the person, or his origin, which ofcourse are irrelevant to the 'friet' itself, lie in the South of Holland, most likely Amsterdam. Late 18th century.)
- 2) There are sources that tell of a 'friet'-shape potato BEFORE we called them french fries, and they also point at a large area of Belgium, but not specific enough. And also, we must not forget, that the potato wasn't discovered that 'long time' ago, as to be food for us in the late years of 1500 (1570-1590's).
- 3) In the explanation of Belgium stands that french fries should not be written with a capital, as it is not a country we are referring to, than at least I wanted to explain why.
- (Hence my original addition I typed about french fries under 'Belgium'.)
- And this all also declines the argument of why it is not called 'German fries', because of German being an enemy in the war. There is no fundamental reason why there even would be speaking of calling it 'German' fries. (As one of the ways of baking them, or the verb, does refer more likely to France in the first place, and secondly, I doubt that Germans were serving the British and Americans troops 'German fries' here during the war ;-)
- At least, none that I found directly in the explanations found at wikipedia.
- -- Phil_Belgium 02:25, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
Picture
The current picture on this page is one of the most unappetising sights I've ever seen. Can we have something else please?
- You're right, it's a terrible picture. The next time that I make my own (two batch cooking) I'll take some pix and post one of them here. Hayford Peirce 22:16, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
History
The history section is a little short, and only talks about the history of french fries in the US. Matijs van Zuijlen
