Triple-cooked chips

Course	Appetiser, side dish
Place of origin	England
Created by	Heston Blumenthal
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Potato

Triple-cooked chips are a type of chips developed by the English chef Heston Blumenthal. The chips are first simmered, then cooled and drained using a sous-vide technique or by freezing; deep fried at 130 °C (266 °F) and cooled again; and finally deep-fried again at 180 °C (356 °F). The result is what Blumenthal calls "chips with a glass-like crust and a soft, fluffy centre".^[1]

Blumenthal began work on the recipe in 1993, and eventually developed the three-stage cooking process. The Sunday Times described triple-cooked chips as Blumenthal's most influential innovation, which had given the chip "a whole new lease of life".^[2]

Blumenthal said he was "obsessed with the idea of the perfect chip",^[3] and described how, from 1992 onwards, he worked on a method for making "chips with a glass-like crust and a soft, fluffy centre".^[1] He researched the starch content of different varieties of potato^[3] and experimented with drying chips by microwaving, desiccating or even individually pinpricking them.^[1] Eventually, Blumenthal developed the three-stage cooking process known as triple-cooked chips, which he identifies as "the first recipe I could call my own".^[1]

First served at Blumenthal's restaurant the Fat Duck in 1995, triple-cooked chips have since become common in restaurants.^{[citation needed]} In 2014, the London Fire Brigade attributed an increase in chip pan fires to the increased popularity of "posh chips", including triple-cooked chips.^[4]

Previously, the traditional practice for cooking chips was a two-stage process, in which chipped potatoes were fried in oil first at a relatively low temperature to soften them and then at a higher temperature to crisp up the outside. Blumenthal's recipe involves simmering the potatoes first in water^[5] for 20–30 minutes until they are almost falling apart and have developed many little cracks across the surface,^[6] at which point they are drained and as much moisture as possible is expelled by placing them in either a freezer^[7] or desiccator machine. This additional stage is designed to achieve three objectives. First, cooking the potatoes gently in water helps ensure they acquire a properly soft texture. Second, the cracks that develop in the chips provide places for oil to collect and harden during frying, making them crunchy.^[8] Third, thoroughly drying out the chips drives off moisture that would otherwise keep the crust from becoming crisp. Blumenthal describes moisture as the "enemy" of crisp chips.^[8]

The second of the three stages is frying the chips at 130 °C (266 °F)^[7] for approximately 5 minutes, after which they are cooled once more in a freezer or sous-vide machine before the third and final stage: frying at 180 °C (356 °F)^[7] for approximately 7 minutes until crunchy and golden. The second stage of low-temperature frying is as essential as the first, according to Blumenthal, as it makes "any starch left in the surface cells dissolve and combine to create a rigid outer layer that can withstand the higher temperature of the final frying".^[8] This second stage is time-consuming, he acknowledges, but must not be omitted. "A single frying at a high temperature leads to a thin crust that can easily be rendered soggy by whatever moisture remains in the chip’s interior."^[8]

Other chefs, such as Joël Robuchon, had previously^{[verification needed]} used such a method of cooking chips in simmering water before subjecting them to a two-stage frying.^[9]

Variations include using a refrigerator to cool the chips in between cooking times and the use of different temperatures, such as 140 °C (284 °F) for the first cooking and 200 °C (392 °F) for the second.^[6] Triple-cooked chips cooked in duck fat is another variation. Various cultivars of potato are used, such as sebago,^[6] Rooster and Maris Piper.^[2]

• List of deep fried foods
• List of potato dishes
• List of twice-baked foods
• Pommes soufflées – a variety of French fried potato. Slices of potato are fried twice, once at 150 °C (300 °F) and then again after cooling, at 190 °C (375 °F).^[10]

• Blumenthal, Heston (2006). In Search of Perfection. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0747584095
• Blumenthal, Heston (2008). The Big Fat Duck Cookbook. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0747583692
• Blumenthal, Heston (2011). Heston Blumenthal at Home. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1408804409

• Sanghvi, Vir (17 June 2011). "French fries: Holy Grail of cooking". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 21 June 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
• "Triple Cooked Chips Recipe". Channel 4. Retrieved 17 June 2014.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Triple-cooked chips.

• Triple-Cooked Chips. Epicurious.