C
Charleston Dave
May 18, 2022
Solid, functional, a professional-grade tool
This French Fry cutter works beautifully, with a few caveats.It produces lots of fries with minimal effort (hint: use older potatoes for better flavor and easier cutting). I like to soak the cut potatoes for at least 30 minutes in water with a capful of plain vinegar added. This helps draw out the starch (the water will be cloudy). This is followed by two cooks in peanut oil, one at low temp to cook the fries through, then one at high temp for crispiness. Season immediately with salt and/or BBQ rub to your preference. The cut fries are perfectly formed. Your results with proper technique will be better than anything at a drive-thru, and way-way-way less expensive.I find the machine simple to clean. The cutter blade is easily removed with 3 thumbscrews (hint: have a small bowl handy to keep the thumbscrews and lock washers together). I soak the cutter blade in a bowl of soapy water, and then use a sink sprayer and vegetable brush to make sure all the potato gunk is cleaned out. It's a 30-second job. The body of the cutter generally needs only to be wiped off with a damp cloth. You can replace the cutter and matching pusher with a different size if you wish to make different size fries.Those users who are complaining that the suction cups are too strong should note that a small rubber column on the cup can be pulled up to release the vacuum. I like having the strong attachment, as I usually cut fries on my smoothtop range and don't want the cutter sliding around. If you don't like the suction cups, take them off and mount the cutter to a piece of plywood or install it vertically on your wall. It's also handy to have a shallow bowl ready to catch the fries as they come out. Put the cut fries immediately into water to avoid darkening.Two design weaknessses: First, if you're not careful removing the cutter blade, it's easy to have the cutter seem to fall apart and be confusing to re-assemble. The more you do it, the less this is likely to happen. Second, it's possible to mount the cutter blade backward. Pay attention, people–the sharp side needs to be the one in contact with the potato! Some of the folks complaining it's too hard to push the potato through the cutter have the blade mounted backward, as the machine is designed to give you a big mechanical lever advantage against the poor defenseless potato.This a pro-style cutter, the same one I used in culinary school, and will hold up forever.
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Perfect Fries Every Time.
Really great french fry cutter. I was sick of mucking about with a knife trying to get a consistent size and with this thing it's a piece of cake.The packaging was a little lackluster, It was a cardboard box and some foam inserts. The box looked a little beat up when I got it but all the parts were pristine when I opened it up. Granted this thing is 100% heavy metal so to do any damage it'd probably have to get dropped off a moving truck and then get run over by a different truck.Also no real instruction but the only thing you have to put on is the lever. To install the handle reomve the long bolt in the very back of the cutter. Place the lever behind the cutter with hand grip pointing away from the unit and the smaller hole up. Line of the back set of holes of the lever in between the holes you removed the long bolt from reinsert the bolt, and tighten down the nut creating the pivot point. Next there should be two metal braces that lead to the pressing plate. Remove the nut and bolt from these braces, raise the lever up so you can sandwich it between the two braces, reinsert and tighten the bolt. It should now slide smoothly back and forth.The cutter is rather large about 1.5 ft long and 1 ft high with the handle attached so it's going to take up some cabinet spaceThe suction cups (which bolt in and you can finger tighten in place) are STRONG. I tried them on a normal counter top, tile, and wood (like a butchers block). They had no problem sticking to anything smooth and nonporous but the wood surface didn't work to well so anything like granite or a varnished counter should be fine.For how they actually cut the potatoes? Nothing was easier. I cut up Russets and it took my about 30 seconds to cut 6 potatoes perfectly and evenly.Clean up isn't bad but you will have to break out a screw drive the remove the pushing plate so it can be properly washed (skins tend to get a little stuck in it). Remove the three front wingnuts and take the cutting grid off. Remove the pushing plate by unscrewing the two screws in the back. Once both those pieces are off you can remove the metal chute where the potato sits. Those get scrubbed and washed and the rest of the cutter gets wiped down since the frame doesn't touch the food at all.It's a tad pricey but the incredibly solid construction means it'll last a life time. Plus you can but a bunch of other plates to make different sizes and such.PS Here's a link to a pretty good method of making frites and one to picking the best potatoes for frying (using a potatoes specific gravity no less)http://chefjonlovett.com/2013/09/french-fries/http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/finding-perfect-french-fry-potatoes
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