Until he started experimenting in 1993, people thought they could get away with cooking their chips once in hot oil and have the perfect crunchy chip.
But they were wrong!
The French have long understood that a chip needs to be fried twice to achieve crunchy perfection , but Blumenthal wanted to take it even farther to create “a glass-like crust and a soft, fluffy center”.
He introduced an extra stage in the cooking process — a pre-boiling in water until the potato was all but falling apart.
The chips were then dried in the refrigerator, before two separate frying's in peanut oil.
This is how the celebrated triple-cooked chip was born.
- Put a pot of salted water on, to a simmering boil.
- Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch strips.
- Simmer until just cooked through – you don’t want them to fall apart.
- Remove with a slotted spoon – place them where they can drain and dry in the refrigerator.
- When they’re cool fry them in peanut oil that’s 250 degrees.
- Fry them, but don’t let them color – remove from oil, drain; and place back into the fridge.
- When cooled, fry them again at about 375 degrees until browned.
- Drain, season and serve.
