You love to devour them with gravy and gooey cheese, enjoy them stuffed into a gyro or even dip them in your milkshake. But do you know how french fries became the global sensation that they are today? The secret to achieving restaurant-quality fries at home? Or whether they’re even really French? In honor of National French Fry Day – that’s the second fry day in July, for all you uninitiated – read on for the contentious history of the simple french fry. Along the way, you might pick up some insider tips about where to score Fry Day freebies and discover a game-changing way to make french fries at home.
Chips, french fries or pommes frites? The fry’s history According to the Smithsonian magazine, thousands of years ago, the Indigenous peoples of the Andes in South America were the first to domesticate many different varieties of potatoes. Indigenous Andeans enjoyed potatoes in many different ways, including in fermented and freeze-dried dishes. Spanish and other European colonizers subsequently brought potatoes back to Europe, where someone had the bright idea of cutting these interesting new tubers into strips and frying them.
But who? The French, Spanish and Belgians all claim credit for inventing french fries. As National Geographic explains, according to one legend, during a particularly icy winter, Belgian villagers along the frozen River Meuse couldn’t catch anything for their traditional dish of fried fish, so they fried potatoes instead. And why call them.
