For The Best Steak Frites, Start The Fries In Cold Oil

The traditional way to make french fries is to soak and then dry sliced potatoes before frying them (often twice) in very hot oil. But an alternative way you may not have tried involves putting the potatoes in room temperature oil before heating them up together. The cold-fry method creates less oil splatters than the usual way, and uses less oil — and since it's often associated with famed French chef Joël Robuchon, it's great to use for steak frites, the classic French dish of skinny fries with steak.

Placing raw sticks of potato into a pan of cold oil may sound unusual, since deep-frying is usually done at high temperatures. But the method is similar to how you might boil spuds by starting them in cold water, which is Gordon Ramsay's secret to better potatoes. Bringing the potatoes and their cooking medium up to temp together means the fries cook through evenly. The interior starts to heat up right away, rather than the outsides crisping up first as they would in hot oil (which can lead to pitfalls like a burnt exterior and raw middle).

Your fries will still become perfectly crisp when cooked this way, so there's no need to worry about them getting greasy. You also only need to cook the potatoes once, with no need to wait around between frying sessions, making it a much faster method. Another advantage is that you can pay more attention to how you might cook your steak, because there's no need to constantly keep an eye on the frites.

When cold-frying spuds for steak frites, go for fluffy russet potatoes, and choose the right oil for making french fries – a neutral-tasting option such as grapeseed, canola, vegetable, or peanut is a good bet. Start with around three cups of oil per pound of potatoes. The cold fry method doesn't require any special equipment, but a heavy cast iron pot or Dutch oven will always work better than an aluminum pot, which is not able to retain the heat of the oil as efficiently. 

It's still advisable to soak the cut potatoes in cold water for a few minutes before frying, as it helps to release their starches and stops them from sticking to each other. Pat the potato matchsticks with kitchen towels or shake them off to dry. You don't need to be as thorough here as with the hot oil method, as the fries won't sputter when they make contact with the cold oil. Once you've added your frites to the pot, pour in enough oil to cover them by an inch or so.

Once the pot is set over high heat, it will only take a few minutes for the oil to come to the boil; then, you'll want to cook the fries for about 15 minutes, depending on their size. The oil temperature should be around 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they're done cooking, the fries will float to the top, ready to be paired with your seared steak.