The History of French Fries
The French Fry, like everything else, has a history. But many histories are hard to trace. Such is the case with the French Fry. We have, however, gleaned a few bits of information, and will update this as often as we obtain further information.
History's a funny thing. "History is written by the victors," a proverb which has been attributed to everyone from Winston Churchill to Alex Haley, traces at least as far back as Plato's quote, "Those who tell the stories rule society." But who's a victor when it comes to French Fries`? What would anyone have to gain by distorting the history of the French Fry (besides some rather nationalistic Belgians who are still annoyed by the American name of this food)?
When we first built this site in February, 1996 we spent hours on research at the largest library available to us (New York Public Library, 42nd St.). We checked gopher (which was where most Internet information could be found back then) and came up with bupkis. We double-checked by taking advantage of our extra access to the Smithsonian libraries in Washington, D.C. to ensure we were correct. We actively sought proof that what we had written was incorrect and failed. We had multiple sources which, in hindsight, we realise we should have noted initially, but there were an awful lot of books that day that we went through.
Now, recently after this site returned to the Tubes, we discovered an article by Karen Hess, a food historian who died a few months ago while finishing the book, Mr. Jefferson's Table. She was not happy with us though she didn't know it was us with whom she wasn't happy. She was mad at the Economist which apparently lifted some information from us without attribution. Ms. Hess was one of the earliest and most respected food historians whose specialty was early American food. We stumbled across a site which had her Origin of French Fries, derived from her research on Thomas Jefferson.
Our original text:
French Fries, at least in the US, seem to have gotten their name from "Potatoes, fried in the French Manner," which is how Thomas Jefferson described a dish he brought over to the colonies in the late 1700s. Presumably, he brought over the method, and not an actual plate or two, as they would have become rather soggy and possibly rancid on the 5- to 8-week Atlantic crossing. He served this to guests at Monticello and it became popular, serious dinner fare.
That's what we wrote because that was the best information we could find. Hess, however, found a list written (in French) by Jefferson which included:
Pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches [?fry till crisp] [? & sprinkle with salt] (Potatoes, fried in deep fat while raw, first having been cut into small slices [?fry till crisp] [?and sprinkle with salt ].Not quite the same thing, but similar. Interestingly, while Hess found that Jefferson was credited with introducing many foods to the US, the claim about French fries may have historical foundation:
I do not find evidence of Jefferson having encountered pommes frites in France; considering his habit of writing receipts and other observations on myriad minuscule scraps of paper; that in itself is not conclusive. Where I do find mention is in the above document in his hand: pommes de terre frites, à crû en petites tranches [potatoes, fried in deep fat while raw, first having been cut into small slices]. When the French say frites, there is only one possible meaning: fried in deep fat.
According to Hess, the earliest recipe that can unequivocally be identified as calling for the frying of sliced raw potatoes is one given in La Cuisiniere Républicaine (1795). Previously, potatoes were generally fried after dipping them in batter, just like apples.
Our original text:
The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language (OED), normally a wonderful research tool, was of little help. Under the heading "French Fries" there is nothing but a reference to the heading, "Chips," which is what the British call French Fries (see International French Fries for more on foreign names). The OED makes first mention of them in an 1857 quote from Dickens about a plate of potato sticks cooked in oil. Big Help. There are also a couple of references to the late 1800s and some quote from an American magazine from the 1950s, but these are of little value to the historian, other than a possible etymological study.
By the mid-19th century, potatoes had become a more common food and frying them was one popular method of preparation. Indeed, L'Art de la Cuisine Française au Dix-Neuvième Siècle (1844/1847, vol. V, pp 506-7) has a recipe for Pommes de Terre Frites which is clearly recognisable as today's French Fry:
Prepare raw yellow potatoes of Holland [cut them en bouchons {cork-shaped} the diameter of a two-franc coin; cut them into slices the thickness d'une ligne, throwing them into water as they are cut], wipe them perfectly dry, have a beautiful friture of fat, or better of oil; plunge the potatoes into the friture when it is three-quarters hot, without taking the pot off the fire; move the potatoes about frequently with a skimmer so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pot; after a few moments they will rise to the surface, but one must not cease moving them, this so as to assure equal colouring; when you see that they are très croustitlantes [crackling crisp], drain them in a strainer and then throw them in a sauteeing pan with two ounces of butter, and salt; serve them en buisson [a bush-like decorative mound], which you top with fried parsley.
The world has since given up on the butter and parsley and moved to salt, ketchup and mayo, but there's no mistaking that this recipe is for French Fries.
Our original text:
It's interesting to note that the French Fry was the precursor to the potato chip. According to The Interesting History of Ordinary Items, in 1853 American Indian George Crum was the chef at Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York. Some guest started complaining that the fries were too thick, so Crum made a thinner batch. Still no good. Crum got fed up and made ultra-thin fries which couldn't be picked up with a fork (the custom then) and would break if one tried to. It didn't quite work out as he'd planned. Not only did this troublesome guest love 'em, so did everyone else. Not one to dwell on a failure, Crum gave in and made them regularly. They were on the lodge's menu as "Saratoga chips". Crum opened up his own place and specialised in the fries-gone-wrong.
We have to eat more crow here. While there's little dispute that Crum popularised the "Saratoga Chip" that became today's potato chip, he was hardly the first to cook them. We have further research to do to find Interesting History's sources, but we'll bet dollars to donuts (or should that be "Francs to French Fries") that it came via Richard J. Hooker's Food and Drink in America (1981) which we don't have a copy of.
Alexis Soyer's recipe in Shilling Cookery for People (1845) called for frying raw potatoes that had been cut into 'almost shavings'. Before that, Mary Randolph's 1824 book The Virginia House-wife included a bit called "To fry Sliced Potatoes" which called for cutting raw potatoes in slices or in shavings and frying them "till they are crisp."
Larry Zuckerman, author of The Potato, seems to have either come across the exact same reference works we did or he got the info from us. All we ask for is a little note and maybe a citation.
To sum up matters, the basic premise that the French Fry did, in fact, originate in France, remains solid. In French cooking, frite specifically refers to deep fat frying as opposed to saute which is used for pan-frying. There's plentiful evidence that frying potatoes in oil was common in France before October 4, 1830, the date of Belgium's independence.
The new information comes primarily from the Karen Hess' The Origin of French Fries, from Petits Propos Culinaires, vol. 68, November 2001; available from Prospect Books (UK). We've mirrored this pagein case it disappears. Neither the publisher nor the museum could state who held the copyright in order for us to obtain permission. This page is a true mirror with no ads or reformatting.
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