The Origin of French Fries

Toni Tipton-Martin shares the origin of French Fries.

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[TitoTimTravels]

These history snippets are great! I love the recipes, but also enjoy learning how food is shared worldwide. 😎

[PokhrajRoy.]

I saw the title and the Universe brought me here.

[Souliban]

Spanish explorers are actually responsible for bringing potatoes to Europe in the first place.

A Spanish explorer described potatoes in a journal entry dating back to 1577 as "a kind of earth nut which, after it is boiled, is as tender as cooked chestnuts." It was pretty typical at the time in Spanish tradition to fry basically anything, so fries definitely could have been on the menu back in the 16th century.

Apparently, fries were first served in Galicia (an autonomous area of northwest Spain), and eventually made their way up to Belgium. Belgium, at the time, was called the Spanish Netherlands. So fries became popular in Belgium because the tradition moved through Spanish communities.

[Mikey_Vids]

Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a Stew!

[pariswillis]

Love everything about the show. Watch it all the time. A life long fan of the show and of the people who appear on Cook’s Country. Continue to do great work.👍👍

[ChIGuY-town_]

I love the show, and the recipes. Thanks for all your hard work!

[normacroberts-hakizimana]

Edit to correct the misinformation I previously posted.

James Hemmings, son of Jefferson and the woman Jefferson kept enslaved, Sally Hemmings 😔
James Hemmings was Sally Hemmings older brother, nor her son. Thanks again to @Charlie Harris fur the update.

[rohinibhat]

Love to learn the food and related history. Thanks for this great segment.

[stevelogan]

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

[beastfremont]

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.

[newtuberfreedom]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing! 🥔🍟

[EmilyG-wkcg]

This is indeed the origin! It came to Europe via Spain, was used for decades as animal food then was street food in France after Parmentier encouraged French citizens to eat. The Belgian claim is bogus (ww1) as it came +100 years after President Thomas Jefferson and others discovered "potatoes in the French manner"....there is also evidence street vendors in Paris sold these..some claim around Pont Neuf.

[blukmagetypeR]

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.

[gnome]

But, but, but, who created Freedom Fries!? 😁

[hgbarmann]

We call them chips .... goes great with fish

[MarcLombart]

Ahem, the Belgians, not the French, invented the deep frying of potatoes.

[protocolofficer]

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.

[brozbro]

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.

[esr]

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

[jaschaheifetz]

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.