McDonald’s Makes Their French Fries

ow McDonald’s Makes Their French Fries

1. The potatoes are washed and peeled by machines.
2. Workers hand-cut any imperfections off the potatoes.
3. The fries shoot through a tube at about 75 MPH through cutting machines.
4. Optical strips look at every single fry and remove any with a fault.
5. They are blanched in precisely maintained 170° water for about 15 minutes to allow for a soft interior.
6. The fries are completely dried.
7. They are then quickly fried for the 1st time at 400° F.
8. From here, they go into a freezer at 10°F.
9. Once frozen, they are shipped to restaurants.
10. Once at the restaurant, they are fried for a second time, salted, and served.

Fun Fact: McDonald’s goes through 3.5 billion pounds of French Fries every year globally.

To see a video of this process, check out this 2-minute video.

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How to Make McDonald’s French Fries at Home:

We don’t have quite the technology that McDonald’s has with its fancy machines, but if you’d like to save time, I recommend this french fry cutter. Of course, you can always just use a knife.

Note: See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full ingredient amounts.

Create a brine using a combination of cold water, corn syrup, salt, and white vinegar. 

Slice the potatoes into strings just under 1/2 inch thick. Drop into the brine.

Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Drain, rise twice with cold water, then pat them completely dry.