Each year on July 13, many people will participate in National French Fry Day by enjoying one of the many varieties of the classic food.
French fries, also known as chips, fries, finger chips or French-fried potatoes, are batons of deep-fried potatoes and are common fixtures at fast food restaurants that are loved by adults and kids alike!
A wide selection of condiments such as ketchup, ranch dressing, vinegar, mayonnaise, honey mustard, cheese and many more compliment French fries. Sweet potatoes make an alternate, healthier offering of fries found on menus around the country. Other varieties are baked and come in unusual shapes such as curls, waffles, crinkle or tornado cut.
The expression “French Fried Potatoes” first occurs in print in English in the 1856 work Cookery for Maids of All Work by E. Warren.
It is believed by some that the term “French” was introduced to the potatoes when the American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I and consequently tasted Belgian fries. It is suggested that they called them “French” as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time.
French Fries are one of many foods whose name is most misleading, as the origins of this fat fried food seem to be in Belgium. The story of their creation can be found in a family manuscript dated 1781, which reveals that potatoes were originally cut into the shape of fish and served in lieu of the fish normally caught in a series of small villages in Belgium. It seems the river had frozen over and the fish they normally caught and fried were unable to be caught.
French Fry Facts:
- French fries are, perhaps, poorly-named, since they originate in Belgium and are most popular in America.
- In England these are referred to as “chips”
- Though French fries were invented in Europe, the potatoes, from which they are made, originated in the Americas and were imported.
- Leaving the potato skin on French fries actually leaves in important vitamins that are lost if the skins are peeled away.
- The first occurrence of French fries in America may have been at a diplomatic dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson.
- Between the 1850s and 1930s, French fries were known more illustratively as “French fried potatoes” in America. Around the 1930s, everybody dropped the “potatoes” on the end and just called them French fries.
- Leaving the potato skin on French fries actually leaves in important vitamins that are lost if the skins are peeled away.
- Steak fries, or chips, actually tend to have lower fat content than normal French fries, due to the lower surface to volume ratio.
- The slang term for potato, “spud”, comes from the spade-like tool that is used to harvest the potatoes.
- Americans eat more than 16 pounds of French fries every year, which comes to over 2 million tons!
- McDonald’s uses about 7% of the potatoes grown in the United States for its French fries. They sell more than 1/3 of all the French fries sold in restaurants in the U.S. each year.
- To burn off the calories in a medium order of McDonald’s French fries, you would need to do: 58 minutes of cycling, 90 minutes of bowling or 47 minutes of high impact aerobics.
Sources:
