ARTIGENDA
French Fry Day
When: annually, July 13.
An annual day celebrating the value of French Fries is French Fries Day. The day is an annual event that takes place on 13 July.
Fries or chips?
In different parts of the world, it is an ongoing debate. In English, the issue is whether it is fries or chips.
This debate also rages in the Netherlands. There, the issue is whether it is “free” or “patient”. In any case, it is about fried potato strips. Fries, patat or patates frites. Whatever name you want to give it, it’s really about the same thing. The debate about the name is sometimes heated. Especially on social media. You either belong to #teamfrites or #teampatat. Linguistically, both are allowed. It derives from the word patates frites. Originally, it depended on the language area which names one used. In the north of the Netherlands, it was patat, in the south friet, in West Flanders frieten and East Flanders frieten and friet. So how come on this day we speak of French Fries? What does France have to do with it?
Pommes frites
In France, Chips or patat are known as pommes frites. Those words first appeared in an American cookbook by E. Warren and with that, we are actually “stuck” with the idea that Chips or patat would be something French. The Americans made of this: French Fries. The description or words first appeared in the cookbook “Cookery for Maids of All Work.” This book was written by E. Warren. Eventually, it even ended up in the Oxford English Dictionary this way, as you can read here.
Papas fritas
This is not at all to say that the French invented chips or patat. As early as 1629, something like this is described as papas fritas, without an actual description of what it entailed. Responsible for this was the Chilean writer Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán (1607 – 1682). It is also quite logical to assume that the origin of this potato dish must be sought in South America. After all, that’s where the potato comes from. However it could also be that it was all invented in Spain. That was the first country in Europe to be introduced to the potato. In Spain, it was common to fry things in oil, so why wasn’t that the case for potatoes? The same idea was had by National Geographic, which wrote an article about it in 2015. You can read that article via this link.
On the contrary, others believe that it can all be traced back to France and that the name should therefore be French Fries. That evidence can be found in the 1795 book “La cuisinière républicaine”. Before that, the recipe would also have been mentioned in an older work (1775). Only the same website that points to France as its cradle (this website) mentions the aforementioned Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán with the same ease. Although one shortens the name to Francisco Núñez de Pineda. The website further links to Robert May (1588-1664), an English cook. Whether you can count the sweet potatoes he fried in butter as chips or fries remains to be seen, however. The same goes for the 1747 recipe for potato rings by Hannah Glasse (1708 – 1770). According to the website, there is a good reason why deep-frying was not possible earlier: it was simply too expensive to use large amounts of fat or oil.
Via potato fritters (1773), it then comes to a kind of doughnut (1783). Finally, the website mentions the year 1803, which is when Charles-Yves Cousin d’Avalon (1769 – 1840) started frying. He describes his recipe as follows:
Deep-fried potatoes.
You peel them all raw and slice them; stuff them and toss them in extraordinary hot frying; when fried, sprinkle them with salt.
Belgium
Yet Belgium also claims to be the discoverer of this deep-fried potato product. For that, we can probably thank Frédéric Krieger, a musician from Bavaria. He learned this from street vendors of the product in Paris around 1842. In 1844, he took the recipe with him to Belgium and started the Fritz company with the slogan “la pomme de terre frite à l’instar de Paris” (“jacket potatoes Paris-style”) (source). Still, it became an ongoing battle between the French and the Belgians over who had now invented Chips or Chips. Then it was mostly about the modern version. Compare it a little with naming. What was the name used in Flemmish and Dutch? That could have been “friet” or “patat.”
About the name
Very carefully then now… Now to the name. Strictly speaking, both camps are right. You may speak of fries or chips and you may speak of patat or pataten. Indeed, you may also just say patat frites. Chips are also no problem. Chips, as people do in England? Also no problem. Pommes, as one does in Germany? Kein Problem! Patatas, as one does in Spain? De nuevo, no hay problema. In the Netherlands, we make it a problem…
There is a difference in the type of fries or chips. That is. If you compare the Flemish version with the French one, the difference is striking. Chips are thus not Flemish fries. So the day as celebrated today is not a day entirely dedicated to all types of fries. Besides, it is also about the association.
French Fries are associated with a menu offered by fast food chains. Here, it is not about thick(er) fries or chips. What counts here is that the potato pieces should be as thin as possible. They are focused on getting these done as quickly as possible. Logical, it’s fast food. On the other hand, these are generally slapper. When you buy a “real” portion of Chips you notice the difference. They are still thinner, just firmer.
French Fry Day
So what about this day? What are its origins? First and foremost, it is primarily a day meant to attract people to well-known fast-food chains. After all, those, especially in the United States, offer French Fries. Hence, it is French Fries Day.
People there would have been very close to never using this designation again. The name was dropped after France criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq. You can read more about that via this Wikipedia page. If you compare that to the discussion between #teamfries and #teampatat, that discussion is not so bad. By the way, the name change was only undone in 2006.
That you have read this now was probably due to the discussion about chips and Chips. Or perhaps you wanted to know more about the background of this day. Of course, you can just do that too…
