Bacon Fat Fries

I know this is really hard to believe...but I made these on accident.  

Well and by accident, I mean that I really hadn't planned to make these at home.  Have you ever been to Beer Belly in Ktown?  They have the most amazing duck fat fries and bacon fat fries.  If you're interested in checking out Beer Belly click here.  So french fries that have been fried in duck or bacon fat are pretty epic.  The crispy, buttery crunch and the feeling of the fat on your tongue is like no other.  You don't need ketchup.  I just like to season with Lawry's seasoning salt and some black pepper.  The first time I had duck fat fries, I had to close my eyes for a second to just savor the fat hitting my tongue.  The only other time I had an experience equal to duck fat and bacon fat fries was a loooooong time ago when I was living in the dorms.  I met this girl from Pennsylvania.  Her mother sent her a care package of Grandma Utz kettle chips.  It was this OMG moment when I ate my first chip.  I read the label and read that it was cooked in....lard.  yeah.  

So here's what happened....I had made bacon for breakfast so I was left with bacon fat afterwards.  I don't pour it down the drain  nor do I like throwing in in the trash hot so I poured into a glass to let cool. I thought I'd scoop it out later and throw in the trash.  

That evening, I made beef stew for dinner and had peeled too many potatoes.  At the last minute, I opted not to use all potatoes and just left them in the sink soaking in cold water. Don't worry.   I didn't waste the peels either.  I use those for potato peel fries chips that I bake in the oven.  You can check that recipe out here.

The next day when I got home from work, I realized that I had the perfect combination to make bacon fat fries.  So why not?  Let's go for it.  Soaking the potatoes for a day in water helped remove a lot of the starch.  Why does this matter?  Well, removing the starch makes for a much crispier potato.  I read somewhere that it also makes the potato lower in carbohydrates...I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I do know it makes for a crispier french fry.

I'm not actually deep frying these.  It's more like pan frying.

All you need is:

Bacon fat (I think I had about 10 tablespoons or so?? I don't actually know)

potatoes that have soaked in water overnight

Lawry's seasoning salt

black pepper

That's it.  Oh, and some patience.

Here we go...

I nuked the glass with bacon fat in the microwave just a tiny bit to warm it and turn it back into liquid form.

Then I poured it into non-stick frying pan.  Heat the bacon fat on medium to medium low.  If you don't have enough bacon fat to cover your potatoes, then add a little bit of olive oil like I did.

I took the potatoes and sliced them lengthwise.  I sliced them fairly thin and then I stacked them back up like this:

Then I sliced them into strips

I like to go fairly thin to cut down cooking time.  Just make sure you cut evenly so that all your potato sticks are evenly sized to ensure even cooking time.

By now your oil is hot.  Use medium low because you want it hot, but not so hot that it's smoking and burning.  Add your potatoes in and try to make sure they are evenly spaced out and all covered in oil.  If you have to do two batches, then do that.  Don't over crowd your pan or you'll end up with something that's more like a bacon fried hash brown...that's not a BAD thing, but fries are so much more fun to eat.

Here's a little video...wish you could smell it too:

These guys started to get brown and crispy after about 5 minutes (remember we're cooking on medium low and I made these really thin) and so I flipped them over to brown the other side.  They can get really crispy so if you don't like them like that, then cook for less time.  

I used a wooden spoon to transfer them into this old pie tin while I started the second batch.  Repeat the same process with the second batch.

When the second batch was almost done, I added the first batch back into the frying pan to reheat.  I remove all the fries from the oil into a bowl lined with a paper towel and IMMEDIATELY season with Lawry's seasoning salt and pepper.  

Eat them while they are hot.  They are divine.

I make in small batches.  I think this is kind of a small batch kind of treat.  I also don't make these too often.  Or try not to.  But once in a while is okay.  They also aren't that hard or scary to make.  I found this on the livestrong website and I almost died laughing:

Warnings

• Cook fries with a helper. Deep-fry accidents can leave you incapacitated, so it's good to have a friend around to help if something goes very wrong.

I think you'll only need help eating these...