French Fry Science.

[JRinPA]

I like the video when they say it is so easy to clean, but then they skip forward every 5 seconds. Just show us the start to finish cleaning without cuts...

[JRinPA]

Can it do sweet potatoes? That is the big question. I think sweets would ruin that blade array. 95% sure that can't do sweets.
Make the pusher depth 2x and array those blades in two layers. Horizontal layer. Vertical layer. Each blade is independent, full thickness and strength, and removable for sharpening. Only requires half the force as well since horizontal cut and vertical cut are out of phase.
Do it up worth...I'm no machinist. But that is what we need.

[worth1]

No it can't do raw sweet potatoes.
It'll destroy the blades.
Sounds like a good idea.

[worth1]

Well the backlash of higher wages and supplies is causing high prices which in turn effects everything I guess back up stream.
It seems people aren't eating as many French fries as the used to because of higher prices.
Look at it this way if everyone orders a small fry instead of a large fry it can cut the amount of fries needed and the amount of people needed to make the fries in the factory in half it it's half the amount.
McDonald's protects their French fries process and they don't want anyone knowing it.
They have people in the factories testing the French fries all the time to make sure the potatoes are up to standards.
I've known people that do fire alarms in these plants in Washington and they've told me all about it.
I've known people that are farmers having to get extra work in the so called spud factories to make ends meet.
One plant in Washington is shutting down due to lack of demand and this effects the farmers two fold.
One not a demand for potatoes if that's where they were going and two no second job.
Lamb Weston the largest supplier of French fries in North America and a major supplier to McDonald's is closing a plant in Washington and laying off 400 workers.
That's a pretty big hit for that area of Washington State.
Nobody wants to pay over 5 dollars for a large fry at McDonald's in California.
Even with the 20 dollars an hour they had to start paying employees in Sacramento that's still less than half of what a person there needs to make just to scrape by.
Off the path of making French fries but I thought it would shoehorn in here as well and stay out of the controversial section.


https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/business ... index.html

[worth1]

Can it do sweet potatoes? That is the big question. I think sweets would ruin that blade array. 95% sure that can't do sweets.
Make the pusher depth 2x and array those blades in two layers. Horizontal layer. Vertical layer. Each blade is independent, full thickness and strength, and removable for sharpening. Only requires half the force as well since horizontal cut and vertical cut are out of phase.
Do it up worth...I'm no machinist. But that is what we need.

I've done some dangerous thinking.
First even if you staggered the blades in the fashion you suggested it would only be easy up to the point of the potato getting to the next set of blades and you'll be back to the same resistance.
Next depending on the amount of blades that's a lot of sharpening to do.
The 1/2 cutter has a total of 10 blades.
The 3/8 cutter has 14 blades.
The 1/4 cutter has 18 blades.
The 1/4 inch cutter is really difficult to push a potato through because of all the friction.

I think a better option would be to put the sweet potato in cold water and slowly bring up to an internal temperature that makes them soft enough to go through the cutters but not too soft.
Might be a good job for the sous vide.
I've wasted my time on the internal temperature for this because I must be the only one checking the temperature of a potato with a thermometer.
Put in microwave for so and so time isn't scientific.
The same with boiling for so and so time.
112 F is done but too done for running through a fry cutter.
I'll have to buy sweet potatoes and experiment.
In all honesty I don't care for fried sweet potatoes but I don't hate them either.
I also don't care for fried dill pickle slices either.
But I'll sacrifice in the name of science.
I'm thinking somewhere around 180F might be a good starting point.
That just happens to be warm in the oven too.

Lastly I have a small mandolin that I've used for years that's never gotten dull.
So I wouldn't worry too much about dull cutters.

[worth1]

I looked on the map and the plant that's closing is in Connel Washington just a speck of around 5 thousand people in 2020.
Right next to it is a cold storage company that obviously stores the potatoes that Lamb Weston uses.
What's going to happen to it?
Over 400 people losing their job in a town of 5000 people is a huge hit at around 8% unemployed just from the facility shutting down.
That's a huge hit for a community.
The demographics says that there are around 40% Latino or Hispanic in the town and I imagine many of them work in the French fries plant.
That's just the way it is because many people I talked to that lived in these areas considered working in the spud factories was sort of a bottom of the food chain job.
There is also a prison.
To put things in perspective that would be close to a quarter of a million people losing their jobs in Austin Texas.
All over French fries.

The place is just a little bigger than Smithville Texas down the road from me at around 4000 people.
The difference is practically nobody lives outside of town it's all farm land
It's 100 miles from from Spokane so that's a little far to drive to work unless it pays big time.

[JRinPA]

True about the 1/2 only being the beginning blade depth, but that is the initial hard part. Once the cut is open the resistance decreases.

I was thinking another problem I hadn't considered, the blade thickness. A single blade splits the potato, and the potato opens as it goes through, since it has space to spread. But a bunch of real knife blades locked in an array would take up space and the potatoes slices would have nowhere to go. It would cause a lot of drag or squeezing the potato.

So can't use "real" shaped blades.

How about replaceable/disposable blades. Like long razor blades. Maybe utility knife blades. They are thin and would be cheap-ish. LOL anyway.

Having to presoak a sweet potato is a pain. Or sous vide. Microwave makes them hot to handle, that I have tried.

The price on that one from link is not bad, it is just really big for a kitchen. And maybe sweet potatoes are just a bridge too far.

We'll probably have laser french fry cutters in the next century. And there will be people complaining that they don't cut sweet potatoes all they way...or that they tried to make it work and it cut their fingertip off. And they had to go to urgent care to have it regrown. And they want the cutter company to pay for it or they will sue!

[worth1]

@JRinPA
I went to the Jalisco Mexican market and bought some sweet potatoes along with other things for the experiment on the temperature.

They are smallesh but fat so should slice easily.
Momentum in the French fry cutter is the ticket once you get started don't stop.
I don't see anything thin enough to be able to use as blades and be able to sharpen them.
Considering the cost of time and labor I feel if they got that bad I would just buy a new one for 8.99.
I don't even have a microwave mine broke years ago and I've never looked back and I don't miss it 99 percent of the time.
The French fry cutter isn't that big.
It's 12 inches long.
16 high at the top of the handle.
And 7 inches wide.
Plus it's pretty and antique looking.

[worth1]

The French fry cutter did a great job on the Mexican squash.
They are shorter fatter squash.
The name at the store just translates to squash.
Calabaza.

[worth1]

I brought the sweet potatoes up to 180 f and they were way too soft for the cutter unless I messed up something.
I'm thinking 140 or 150 might be better.
I went ahead and fried the sweet potatoes and as usual they sucked.
I've had fried sweet potatoes by the best cooks and they aren't any better than mine
I honestly don't get the big deal with these things.
My idea of a sweet potato is baked with butter and salt.
Or sweet potato pie spiced up really good with pumpkin pie spice.
Fermented sweet potato is good too.

[worth1]

Okay I'm taking everything back.
I do like fried sweet potatoes but my way.
I had a plate of them in the freezer that I didn't fry.
Tonight I fried them slowly until the edges turned black but not burnt.
They were crispy and tasty.
The other sweet potato was cooked as well but in the freezer.
I let it sit out for a bit but still soft frozen and sliced it up into discs.
They're frying as we speak.