The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

time they were cooked through, the fries cooked in the
vinegar-spiked water stayed perfectly intact, even after
boiling them for 50 percent longer than the other fries.
Despite their smooth-looking exteriors, I knew that by
boiling them for so long, I’d burst plenty of starch granules.
With the excess sugars washed away and the pectin
strengthened and ready to buttress the thick, crisp walls my
fries would develop in the deep fryer, all that remained was
to give them a first fry at 325°F to burst any remaining
starch granules and begin crust formation, followed by a
second fry at 375°F to bring them up to a perfectly crisp,
golden blond.
Frying them up proved it: they came out positively
riddled with tiny, crisp microbubbles: