French fries (North American English, sometimes capitalized), fries, or french-fried potatoes are thin strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans often refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in other parts of the world, long slices of potatoes are sometimes called fries to contrast them with the thickly cut strips, which are often referred to as chips. French fries are known as frites or pommes frites in many parts of E...
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French fries (North American English, sometimes capitalized), fries, or french-fried potatoes are thin strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans often refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in other parts of the world, long slices of potatoes are sometimes called fries to contrast them with the thickly cut strips, which are often referred to as chips. French fries are known as frites or pommes frites in many parts of Europe, and have names that mean "french potatoes" in others (Icelandic Franskar kartöflur, Finnish Ranskalaiset perunat).
The phrase means potatoes fried in the French sense of the verb "to cook", which can mean either sautéing or deep-grease frying, while its French origin, frire, unambiguously means deep-frying, frites being its past participle used with a plural feminine substantive, as in pommes de terre frites ("deep-fried potatoes"). Thomas Jefferson at a White House dinner in 1802 served "potatoes served in the French manner". In the...
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