The Progressive French Fry Cutter- Making Tons of Fries is a Breeze!
Written: Mar 17 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quick setup, easy to clean, makes nice fries, two sizes of blades, stainless steel, cheap
Cons: Takes some effort, takes only smaller potatoes or trimmed potatoes
The Bottom Line: A french-fry cutter is the way to make fries - not by hand! This is a nice product that has made food preparation fun/easy, without costing a fortune!
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| Javelina's Full Review: Progressive International French Fry Cutter |
Recently, we purchased a deep fryer. So one of the first things that came to mind, of course, was making French fries. We started by cutting the potatoes up by hand. The tediousness of it was enough to not make any more fries by hand, and we were determined not to proceed without a French fry cutter!
The French Fry Cutter
The French fry cutter is a small, countertop tool. It has two blade options, for small size fries or larger fries, and the blades are stainless steel. The larger blade makes up to 48 3/8” fries, and the smaller makes up to 25 ½” fries. Of course, potatoes are not perfectly square, and come in various sizes, so it will depend on the potato as to just how many fries you get!
The tray length is 3-1/2”, which then is obviously the maximum length of the fries. There is a pusher plate on one side, which is what pushes the potato through the blades. One has 25, and the other 48 little “nubs” that pushes the potato into the blades, then following through to push the cut pieces through the blade assembly.
There is a lever handle which you pull up when you’re inserting a potato into the tray. After the potato (or other vegetable) is in place, you push down on the handle to push the potato through the blade assembly. The handle part has a wider plastic piece on it, so it’s not like you’re pushing down on just a thin piece of metal.
The Progressive French fry cutter doesn’t take up much counter space, at 4.25 inches x 9.75 inches x 4.0 inches. It isn’t that big to store, either.
Setup & Cleanup
It is simple to assemble and prepare this unit for making fries. You simply slide into place whichever blade size you want, and make sure that the appropriate pusher plate is in place as well. The blades and the plate snap right in to place, and you’re ready to go. Make sure the potato or whatever vegetable you’re using is the right size (not too big for the blades), and push the lever down.
As for cleanup, it is pretty simple. You hand wash the blades and pusher plate in soapy water. I have read that people have had no problem putting parts in the dishwasher, but the pieces are small and it’s so quick to just wash them off, that I haven’t wanted to risk it.
My Thoughts
I was thrilled to get this tool, since there was no way I was going to cut up potatoes by hand any more! Although this product has a few flaws, or at least things I feel could be improved upon, it is very useful, and I wouldn’t ever hesitate to use it.
The blades are nice and sharp. They are also sturdy, so it isn’t an issue to be forcing raw potatoes through the assembly. However, it does take some, err, brute force to cut the potatoes. First, we tried cutting potatoes in half and putting the flat end up against the blades. It took quite a bit of effort to push the potato through. Then we tried cutting the potato in half but putting the uncut end of the potato up against the blades, and this seemed to work a little better.
I would suggest putting the French fry cutter on a counter that isn’t too high, if possible, so that you can get the best leverage. I wouldn’t mind if the handle were a little larger or shaped differently. After using so many Oxo products, the first thing that comes to mind would be a nice, rubberized handle.
One of the problems we ran into is the bottom “lip” of the tray, where the potato gets pushed through the blades. It almost seems like the tray catches the potato a little bit, requiring a little more effort.
The other problem seemed to be the size. I think the overall unit could be bigger, just because many of the potatoes need to be trimmed down on the sides in order for it to fit through the blades. I have heard that this unit does come in a larger size – the “Jumbo French Fry Cutter” but it isn’t enough of an issue for me to need to buy one.
Using this French fry cutter is quite simple. You “load” the potato and push down on the handle. We usually put a kitchen towel out on the counter in front of the potato slicer so that they don’t go flying across the counter. In general, we soak the fries in water anyway, which is recommended for removing the starch. We then use that kitchen towel to blot the uncooked fries dry.
The two different size blade assemblies is a nice feature. Sometimes it is nice to go for small, crispy fries, and sometimes we like the larger size fries. You could use the larger size for cutting zucchini or other vegetable strips as well, making it very versatile. Some people have used this for creating vegetable batons and so on.
What we generally end up doing is making a fairly large batch of fries at once. Our approach is to soak the potatoes (to remove the starch), then fry them. If you fry them once, they won’t be particularly crispy. But if you refrigerate or freeze them and fry them a second time, they will come out crispier. With the French fry cutter, we can make up a nice batch to freeze, and then not only do we have them on hand, it will be the second time in the fryer, making them crispier.
Overall Thoughts
I actually thought that a French Fry Cutter would be more expensive, so I’m very happy that it didn’t cost very much. We found this item on Amazon.com, where it is listed for $12.99. Although I didn’t see it at either store, Linen’s N Things and Bed Bath & Beyond have great coupons, and they accept competitor’s coupons (including expired ones at BB&B, or at least that’s what I was told!). We combined some items on Amazon so that shipping was free (shipping is free for orders over $25).
I can’t imagine going back to cutting up potatoes by hand. This is a really useful machine and makes French fry preparation a breeze. It takes some strength, but compared to dicing up little bits of fresh potato, it doesn’t even compare. With this machine, you could literally prepare a whole bag of potatoes for the fryer in the time it would take to cut up a potato manually. So having to exert myself to push down the handle, especially before eating a load of greasy fries, isn’t a big deal!
This Progressive French fry cutter is simple to use and easy to care for. It doesn’t take up that much space, and it just makes cooking easier! This product will save you a ton of time, and eliminates the extreme tediousness of cutting up potatoes manually.
... Now I just have to be careful we don’t gorge ourselves on greasy fries all the time!
Recommended:
Yes
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