From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Subject: Re: Lowfat French fries
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 06:58:57 GMT

Jane Colman writes:

>In article <Bz2GIL.HyC@rice.edu> cathyf@is.rice.edu (Catherine Anne Foulston) writes:
>>Someday I am going to come up with a low-fat way to fix potatoes that
>>is vegan and will satisfy those of us with french fry cravings.

>You can get a pretty good approximation by cutting up potatoes like
>french fries, brushing them with a very little bit of oil, and baking
>them at a fairly high temperature for a while, turning them over in
>the middle of the cooking time.  You're not likely to get them this
>way from a fast food place, though.

I would say that they are not only a "pretty good approximation",
they are better!   Here is something I posted earlier, which 
is along the same lines as what you recommend.

					ted



FAT FREE FRENCH FRIES!  (is this not an oxymoron)

Baking, of course, is even more preferable to frying since here
the commonly used temperature is 350 degrees F, and you don't
have to use fats/oils for cooking.   Indeed, there are many
dishes that one can cook though baking instead of frying.

For example, one can produce some very tasty and completely fat
free "French Fries" by simply steaming the potatoes until soft
(not too soft), then cutting them up into chips.  Now, one simply
baking them on a glass baking pan (the pan does NOT need to be
oiled, and chips are simple turned over once during baking to
very lightly brown both sides).  Alternatively, you can freeze
the cut chips first and then bake if one prefers an extra mushy
interior as we find with fried chips.


WHY BAKING IS PREFERABLE TO FRYING

Typical frying temperature is about 400 degrees F and can reach
up to 600-700 degrees F.   When fats/oils are heated to such
temperatures some of the CIS fatty acids are converted to TRANS
fatty acids.  This simply pertains to how the molecule is turned
but the consequence is that unsaturated fats begin to behave like
saturated fats with respect to their effects in raising instead
of lowering serum cholesterol levels (about 50% of the
cholesterol increasing effect of saturated fat) and can raise LDL
cholesterol by nearly as much as the saturated fat (Mensink &
Katan, 1990).  So, the advantage pf PF, in this one respect,
becomes not much greater than that of SF.  Besides the extra fat
consumed, this is another reason why fried foods are more likely
to contributes to a hardening of the arteries.  When fat is
reheated to frying temperatures a second time (as in deep fryers)
the fat is more likely to develop cancer the producing agent
acrolein and even benzopyrene (a known carcinogens).

Very hot temperature also destroy certain vitamins and may alter
the major proteins.

Burning of fats produces charring products that are also
carcinogenic. If one is quick frying and burning occurs,
temperatures up to 1000 degrees F could have been reached.  Even
if one does not burn the oil or fat, overcooking (esp. when one
reuses oils) breaks down the polyunsaturated molecule and free
radicals can form.  These are fragments that have combined with
any available oxygen to produce toxic peroxides.  They are toxic
because that act as strong oxidizing agents that damage and
destroy cells.

Baking, therefore, is generally preferable, unless one fries with
water added in with the oils (this helps keep to keep the
temperatures down to a safer level) or simply with water alone.


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