Why why why don't my chips work out right?

[Trillipse]

My mum (natch) makes fantastic chips and roast spuds in an oblong deep fat fryer. Clearly, I want to mimic her culinary success, but have never managed the chip thaaaing. Having bought an elementary fryer from Tesco a couple of years back, all my methods in all their various incarnations yielded floppy, decidedly uncrisp chips. I blame the heat. Or lack of.

Am i meant to parboil/blanch the chips first? Do I dry them off? do I make them thicker or thinner? do I simply give up...?

[SteveD]

It probably depends on the variety of potato.  What does your mother use?

[puttycake]

Use large 'dirty' potatos. Chip them and dry them very well with a tea-towel. I actually dry mine individually, which sounds really sad, but it works!

Heat your oil to 70 degrees. When it's bubbling well. put the chips in and leave them until they are turning brown. Lift them out and turn the oil up to 90 degrees. When it's the right temperature, put the chips back in for a minute or so, then put them out onto a few pieces of kitchen towel - I drape  four double sheets in a row (eight sheets) on the work top. Take the basket out of the pan, put the chips back in for ease of serving, and wack them onto pre-heated plates with what ever else you are having and voila! Crispy nice chips every time.

[d0gsb0dy]

Are you using dripping or vegetable oil? Oil makes awful chips. The only real way ot cook them is in dripping. Forget the rubbish about cholestrol. My wife has just had a medical check and hers is normal. We fry everything in fat. Besides which, vegetable oils heated to high temperatures result in harmful trans fats.
I almost forgot. Make sure the fat is at maximum temperature before putting the chips in the pan.
Enjoy.

[brionon]

Fry 'em twice. All Restaurants do this out of neccessity,but it works.

[nfn]

And use Maris Piper spuds!

[simsfreq]

This will sound odd but buy steakhouse style oven chips and do them in the fryer... they taste great even though it says nothing on the packet about cooking them that way!