Fig. 1: The contents of the mailing box
(the box was huge and the dry ice had already sublimated).

These French Fries actually received a Patent: US Patent Number 5,393,544

Fat-free Fries?

But Shari was willing to put her Fat Free Fries to the test and within a week of first contacting us had a box express shipped to us. The box took an extra day to get here, but luckily, it was big enough and had had enough dry ice that they never had a chance to thaw.

Laboratory Equipment:

Magic Chef Vue Magic gas-fired Oven Unit
Taylor Model 5931 high-temp thermometer
Ecko Baker's Secret Air-Insulated dual-layer baking pan
Flint Stainless Steel spatula

Experiment Supplies:
Pacific Valley Foods' Fat Free Fries
      (Crinkle Cut variety -- 1.5 lb. (680g))

Definitions of Dedication:

1) Submitting your product to the Official French Fries Pages for exhaustive testing.

2) Conducting a experiment requiring long baking times at high temperatures on the hottest day of a New York City summer in the non-air conditioned Select Ware Culinary and Food Technology Laboratories.

The challenge:

Pacific Valley Foods claim that they have "fat free" French Fries. They put their reputation on the line and submitted their product to relentless testing from the world's biggest skeptics: the world-reknown and highly esteemed Official French Fries Pages.

Methodology:

At approximately 14:00 the equipment and supplies were assembled. The accompanying photographs were taken at various stages of the experiment and are annotated.

Manufacturer's instructions were carefully checked and the no-fat version of said instructions are reproduced below.

1. Preheat oven to 450°-475°F.
2. Spread frozen french fry potatoes in a single layer on a teflon cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning potatoes once during baking.

We'd promised to do the experiment and had already prepared the Laboratory, so despite a hunger that demanded immediate satisfaction, we waited, knowing full well that dunking these things in the Frying Unit would have the experimenters and judges fed in a lot less time. However, when the lead scientist recalled accidentally standing briefly on the Mass Detection and Display Unit neat the Shower Unit earlier in the day, he decided he could probably wait the few extra minutes to save himself a hundred calories or so.

The Oven unit was pre-heated to approximately 464°F (240°C), almost midway between the stated temperatures. A sensitive Temperature Sensing Device was used, since the internal Oven Unit thermostat is no longer fully reliable. The Oven Unit temperature fluctuated between 420°F and 512°F before a thermostat setting was found to hold temperature constant at 464°F .

Fig. 3: Temperature Sensing Device prior to use

Once the Oven Unit had reached proper temperature, a bag of Fat Free Fries Crinkle Cut Potatoes was removed from the cold storage facilities of the Laboratory and approximately half the contents were laid out on the baking sheet, as directed in the cooking instructions. We also ensured good separation between the fries to allow for maximum hot air flow.

Fig. 4: We did NOT want to wait 25 minutes for these!

Note: Although many of the fries seem short, they were not originally deliverd this way; one of our researchers let the bag fall from a considerable height and broke many of the fries. You'll have to take our word on it, but keep in mind that Pacific Valley sent only four bags of Fries and no bags of money

While waiting, our scientists whiled away the time in competitive sport; French Fries are not the only addictive thing in the world nor in the Laboratory here. When not engaged in this computer puzzler pictured on the left, our scientists were busy cooling off in the shower. June 14 was a very hot day.

The spatula method, however, did not guarantee that each fry would land on a different side, so our asbestos-fingered lead experimenter carefully rotated each fry individually, ensuring that the side previously lying on the pan was now a side or top face.

This sort of exacting attention to detail is probably unnecessary outside of the laboratory environment.

Fig. 6: We attempt to follow the instructions

We then prepared the Culinary Testing Area and fetched a serving dish and the standard condiments.

And napkins.

Fig. 8: We had some lighting problems

Misses

OK, OK.. there were a few small problems. Here they are:

1. You can't find these everywhere. Pacific Valley Foods actually had to send these things by express delivery to us because there are no stores in New York City that carried them at the time of the experiment.
2. They take about 40 minutes to prepare. There doesn't seem to be much that can be done about this, either. That's not so terrible when you stop to think about the fact that they have half the calories of normal French Fries.
3. Salt doesn't stick to the French Fries well. But who cares?! You save 100 calories and can always put the salt on the condiments instead.
4. They only sent us two bags of the Crinkle Cut French Fries. Before the experiment that didn't bother us, but now that we know, we're not so happy about this.

Conclusions

It may be clear to everyone that you "can't make a real french Fry without oil", but we're no longer a part of "everyone". There were some very minor taste differences but these were barely noticable. The clearest sign that these were not cooked in oil was that the salt didn't stick to them very well. Considering that these have the same number of calories as baked potatoes (since that's pretty much what they are), salt that doesn't stick just isn't quite as important. How does only 70 calories per 3oz (84g) serving grab you? Before you answer, check out the nutritional information and Microwave French Fries experiment!

We were also sent two bags of the Potato Wedges and we tried them as well. The first batch burned so we reduced the cooking time. They were also very much like the cooked-in-oil version. We preferred the Crinkle Cut potatoes. Here are the wedges:

   
Fig. 10: Fat Free potato wedges, too!.