National Julienne Fries Day

Geoff [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

August 12th in the United States is National Julienne Fries Day.

Julienne fries are a version of French fries (potatoes served in the French manner as Thomas Jefferson called them), otherwise known as chips in many other countries.

Julienne fries are made from potatoes, just like normal ones are, and are cooked in the same way too, whether that's by frying, microwaving or oven baking. The difference is in the preparation of the potatoes for cooking.

This process is known as "julienning" and is a knife cut. Where the term originates from is unknown, but it could be named after someone, as Julien is a known name. Julienning involves cutting the vegetables extremely finely, so that they resemble matchsticks in thickness. The potatoes are generally first trimmed to produce straight sides, then cut thinly one way to make thin slices, which are then cut the other way to make the matchstick-sized fries.

There is actually a specific size for julienned vegetables, including potatoes, of 1.5mm x 1.5mm x 5cm in length.

If potatoes are fried this way, it can be a fairly unhealthy way of cooking them, as the greater surface area allows more cooking oil to coat the chips than would be the case in normal sized ones.