Oven French Fries

For a small family, homemade french fries don't make a lot of sense.  They use lots of oil, and frying makes a mess.  This recipe is a good compromise.

Peel 2-4 smallish russet-type potatoes.  

(One of the mealy types rather than the waxy types.)

Cut into fries - whatever size or shape suits your fancy.

Make a brine of 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons sugar or corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.    Soak the cut potatoes an hour or up to 24 hours.

This releases some of the starch from the surface and gives a bit of flavor.

Preheat the oven to 450º.  Bring the cut potato pieces to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.

I drain them on a tea towel to absorb much of the surface moisture.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a heavy pan, add the drained, cooled potatoes, and coat them with the oil.  I like the flavor of peanut oil.  You would want an oil with a high smoke point.

This is my favorite 13 inch cast-iron pan.

Bake at 450º for 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes.

After a half-hour, I put the potatoes to the side and add a hamburger.

This is an 8-ounce burger to share.

There are several advantages to this method.  
There are no fat droplets floating in the air making a greasy mess.
There's no worry about storing leftover oil.

There's not much mess to clean up.

And they are delicious!