There’s not many things nicer than a good bag of chips

I loooove mayonnaise. This must be something Japan picked up from Dutch a long time ago as mayo is quite popular in Japan and I grew up with it. However it never occurred to me to use it with fries. Till I found D&L mayonnaise ( this is not Dutch it’s Belgium ) I replaced vinegar on frieds with mayonnaise. :grinning_face: Delish!! :+1:

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Of I ever see you eating it in a diner, don’t worry, I won’t shoot you, but I will politely decline if you offer to share!

:laughing:

I am from Hyde, Cheshire but worked for many years in Essex , i was persecuted as a Northerner for having gravy with chips :rofl:

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The correct accompaniment chez Sloop is salt and vinegar applied by the chip monger.

Keep a close eye on vinegar application, many chip mongers underestimate the correct quantity needed.

I’ve even won my Belgium son in law over to the delights of Italian fish and chip takeaway in Ireland.

As for gravy and mushy peas, nowt as queer as folk.

.sjb

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For those liking adding 4% acetic acid to chips, do you prefer malt vinegar, wine vinegar (what type?), or synthesised vinegar aka non-brewed condiment, often used by fish and chip shops - and which is often bought as a concentrate and diluted by the shop or other user - with risk of under- or over-dilution. Do you even know if your favoured outlet uses malt vinegar or non-brewed condiment malt vinegar substitute falsely masquerading as the real thing? (N.B. i have no idea if there is any difference in taste between real and imitation malt vinegar.)

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Chez AM, we favour first vinegar then (and only then) salt. There is a tendency to wash off the salt otherwise. But it’s a tough gig as every server will inevitably ask “salt and vinegar”, leading to a correction from me, which feels petty. But this is important stuff.

Rather than yellow or even golden, I favour a slight brown tinge to my chips, as if they’ve been very slightly overcooked. The slight carbonisation (?) just adds to the flavour (this also works with crisps, I avoid Walkers for their bland yellowness).

There was a long-gone chippy in Upper St, Islington that did chips this way, and I still think wistfully about them, on occasion.

Pub chips are invariably disappointing in my experience. The annoying thing is that they should be so easy to get right, with just a bit of effort. Any half decent taverna in Greece will provide far better chips than most English pubs - just by using fresh potatoes cooked in olive oil.

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Thinking back of summer 1980 when I was in Torquay with some friends.Not so much money to spend:fish&chips really helped!

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I always thought that olive oil wasn’t the best oil to cook chips. Something about the temperature required, I maybe wrong perhaps someone might know if that’s true.

Chip shop chops have to come with chip shop curry sauce. And lots of salt.

Fries and friet…definitely mayo or “frietessaus”. Love a “frietje met en en frikandel speciaal” @Ardbeg10y

Olive oil is not ideal for deep frying, especially extra virgin. Cooking too close to its smoking point will make the oil bitter. I use sunflower oil at 180C. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Reheat to 180C for subsequent batches.

I use Maris Piper potatoes, pre boiled in water for 8 minutes, then allowed to dry for a while before deep frying.

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I’d use refined rapeseed oil for high temperature frying. Refined olive oil would just about work, but any oil that’s cold pressed, virgin etc. should be used only for very low temperature cooking or uncooked use such as dressings.

Alternatively, good old fashioned beef dripping is as good as it gets for deep frying. Most chip shops in the UK used to use it, but not any more. We have a nearby pub that has started to source beef dripping from local farms who struggled to sell it. Obviously it’s not something you should be eating regularly, but their chips are great.

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I can’t go to a snackbar, yogi! The mess with frietsaus puts me off. They sell it as mayonnaise (legally required to have 70% or higher oil) but it is frietsaus which typically has 20% pct oil binded to water so that the margins are higher.

Also the friet is usually dreadful. Few places know how to prepare good fries here.

Are you Dutch living in London?

I never shallow or deep fry anything in olive oil, I generally use a mixture of butter and a good quality oil or lard for shallow frying and lard or oil for deep frying

Totally agree for deep frying. But the Greeks simply shallow fry their chips in olive oil. They use fresh local potatoes too and I’m sure they wouldn’t bother par-boiling them. I’ve experimented at home - Maris Piper in shallow olive oil - and got similar results.

Now, these are very different from the classic “soggy” chippy chip here in the UK, for obvious reasons. But they’re just as moreish and much better than most pub chips.

I reckon those fail because they’re often pre-frozen, and because pubs don’t have the same deep fat fryers that chip shops do. Which is also why fish and chips in a pub is rarely as decent as that from a chippy.

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No, I lived in the Netherlands when I was a kid and to be fair, I have not had a frietje met for about 30 years, let alone a frikandel.

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.sjb

So, not vinegar! Better or worse? (Or rather worse or not quite as bad?!)

If you’re in the UK this is the one to get. Brewed, aged in oak and bottled in Cornwall. I first came across it at Mark Hix’ fish restaurant in Lyme Régis where you have it with his ‘cockle popcorn’ as nibbles with your aperitif. Amazing stuff

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