Papas fritas

Contents
• Etymology
• Culinary origi
o Belgium
o France
o Spain
• Spreading popularity
o United Kingdom
o United States influence
• Variants
o Curly fries
o Fish and chips
• Accompaniments
• Health aspects

French fries

French fries North American English, sometimes capitalized], fries, or french-fried potatoes and, in theUnited Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, chips are thin strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans often refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in other parts of the world, long slices of fried potatoes are sometimes called fries to contrast them with the thickly cut strips, which are often referred to as chips. French fries are known as frites or pommes frites in manyparts of Europe, and have names that mean "french potatoes" in others (Icelandic Franskar kartöflur, Finnish Ranskalaiset perunat).
Etymology
(Oven baked fries)
The phrase means potatoes fried in the French sense of the verb "to cook", which can mean either sautéing or deep-grease frying. While its French origin, frire, unambiguously means deep-frying, frites being its pastparticiple is used with a plural feminine substantive, as in pommes de terre frites ("deep-fried potatoes").Thomas Jefferson at a White House dinner in 1802 served "potatoes served in the French manner". In the early 20th century, the term "French fried" was being used for foods such as onion rings or chicken, apart from potatoes.
The verb "to french", though not attested until after "French friedpotatoes" had appeared, can refer to "julienning" of vegetables as is acknowledged by some dictionaries. while others only refer to trimming the meat off the shanks of chops. In the UK, "Frenched" lamb chops (particularly for serving as a "rack of lamb") have the majority of the fat removed together with a small piece of fatty meat from between the ends of the chop bones, leaving mainly only themeat forming the "eye" of the chop attached.

Culinary origin
Belgium
Belgian historian Jo Gerard recounts that potatoes were fried in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. The poor inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river wasfrozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals."A Belgian legend claims that the term "French" was introduced when British or American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, and consequently tasted Belgian fries. They supposedly called them "French", as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time.
Whetherthe Belgians invented them or not, "Frieten" became the national snack and a substantial part of several national dishes.

France
In France, fried potatoes are called "pommes de terres frites" , "pommes frites" or more simply (and commonly) "frites".
Recipes for fried potatoes in French cookbooks date to Menon's Les soupers de la cour (1755). Eating potatoes was promoted in France byParmentier, but he did not mention fried potatoes in particular.
Many Americans attribute the dish to France and offer as evidence a notation by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. "Pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches" ("Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings") in a manuscript in Thomas Jefferson's hand (circa 1801-1809) and the recipe almost certainly comes from his French chef,Honoré Julien. In addition, from 1813on, recipes for what can be described as french fries, occur in popular American cookbooks. By the late 1850s, one of these mentions the term "French fried potatoes".
Spain
Some claim that the dish was invented in Spain, the first European country in which the potato appeared via the New World colonies, and assumes the first appearance to have been as an...