The Origin of French Fries

Byamazingfoodstv


Toni Tipton-Martin shares the origin of French Fries.

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33 Comments

  2. Not quite….the Spaniards did indeed bring both tomato and potato plants back from the Americas in the 16th century; however, the plants were used only as decoration. The Florentines were the first to eat the fruits of both plants AND the first to deep-fry ANYTHING in Europe. Every other country/chef(yes, including Russia and Parmentier) followed. The influence of the Italian renaissance is not to be underestimated.

  3. So when you say "The origin of FF", that would be the French. That seems dubious as does the Hemmings story. My guess is that if potatoes were known anywhere as a food, there would also be cooking in fat. Find the origin of those two product and you have the origin of frying potatoes in fat.
    As for Hemmings, I'm sure everything you say is true, except that if there were potatoes and fat in America before Hemmings, then so were fried potatoes.

  7. James was the brother of Sally Hemings, who bore several children by Jefferson. Jefferson was married to Martha Jefferson at the time.
    Martha Jefferson & Sally Hemings were actually half sisters as Martha’s father had previously owned Sally’s mother.
    During their time in France, Sally was thankfully able to negotiate freedom for her children.

  9. Typical American response when there is really nothing to say. This whole thing is about fried potatoes, yet you guys go off on a tangent getting completely away from the subject. No wonder the World is fed up with yanks!

  22. Thomas Jefferson was also the man who finds that tomatoes are not poisonous, much to superstitious non-belief; that, and potatoes, as well as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, tomatillos, (and surprisingly, tobacco) are part of the common nightshade (or Solanacaea) plants.

  24. I'm Irish & potatoes are our # 1 staple food, I eat them appx. 280-300 days a yr in some form, during the potato famine centuries ago in Ireland we Irish nearly starved to death because of that even though there were other foods to eat

  27. Fish and chips, as we think, originated in the UK. At first, we were told that the meal arrived in England from Lithuania by Jews. Since then I have read that only the battered fried fish is from Lithuania and the chips, from Portugal. As you may know, the Portuguese method of frying battered food went around the World with Japan being a recipient. Hence Tempura! I feel that perhaps it’s the Portuguese influence on the United States (New England) that the original French fries came to America! OR, The French stole the fried potato from Portugal as the French had no explorers in central and South America and only the English, Spanish and Portuguese brought the “spud” to Europe.

  29. That sounds way too much an American version of someone else culture. French fries come from Belgium and northern France where potatoes were « frenched » in sticks and fried. Added twist, potatoes « frites » are fried in beef fat and twice

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