One of the reasons vacation is the absolute best, besides allowing you to stand back and see where you’re getting rusty, is that you, if you’re like me, get to eat whatever you damn well please, without giving much thought to whether or not you really should, which, as adults we know is almost always in the back of our minds when we’re stuck in real life. Good angel, bad angel, high cholesterol and tight pants are realities that almost always disappear the moment I step outside my door, suitcase in hand.
On my last such adventure, Mom and I became absolutely addicted to salt & vinegar chips (or, crisps as they were called on that particular adventure). They were an obvious purchase at each grocery stop, and a necessary part of our #MilesThroughthIsles roadtrip. The problem was, when I came home, I somehow came to the conclusion that I needed to buy them for my home! I may have told you that I’m an expert rationer of food, a hoarder even, so I wasn’t worried about finding myself greased up with salt and guilt one evening on the couch. But, why I am even buying them in the first place?
It was then that I realized I needed to learn how to concoct a salt & vinegar substance so that it’s glory was not limited to potato chips, but roasted potatoes, popcorn, butternut squash and these salt and vinegar oven fries; the sky’s the limit. But how? God bless the internet.
There were two options on how to make this happen; one involved mixing a paste and letting it dry, whereas the other involved a lot of microwaving and blowing to form crystals and gel and…well, more work than mixing a paste. So the paste it was.
After consulting both Martha and the BBC, both reputable sources, which seemed for the most part in agreement on the method, I went to work and after 30 hours, came up with nothing more than a very salty, but not very vinegar-y powder. I’m not sure if the result would have been different with malt vinegar, but for the regular old distilled, the result was not what I wanted. I guess that meant that I’d be blowing crystals.
This second method, courtesy of Instructables, did work. It took me about 26 minutes in the microwave, and cost me a very smelly apartment. Imagine the lingering smell of overcooked vinegar, if you can. My advice to you is to do this on a day when you can have your windows open for a few hours to air things out a bit.
While this did work, it also takes quite a bit to really flavor a dish. Still, a good thing to have on hand when you want to salt & vinegar your life in a way more than store bought potato chips allow.
Salt and Vinegar Oven Fries
Salt and Vinegar Oven Fries are a healthier, homemade version of the fan favorite salt and vinegar potato chips.
Ingredients
- For the vinegar powder:
- 1 TB baking powder
- ~1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
- For the oven fries:
- 2 baking potatoes, washed and cut into strips of desired thickness
- A bit of Cornstarch, for powdering (*This will absorb extra moisture and make them crispier*)
- 2 tsp coarse sea salt
- ~2 TB olive oil
Directions
- Step 1 Make the vinegar powder:
- Step 2 Put 1 TB baking soda in a liquid, microwave safe measuring cup. Slowly add small portions of white vinegar, stirring after each addition. Once the mixture stops fizzing, even with stirring, it’s ready.
- Step 3 Next, boil off the water in the mixture by microwaving the mixture for three five-minute segments followed by a few one-minute bursts until you start to hear sizzling. (It should still be mostly liquid.)
- Step 4 Blow across this saturated solution to form crystals, let cool, and dry on a coffee filter-lined bowl and break up into salt crystals.
- Step 5 Make the oven fries:
- Step 6 Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Step 7 Place a greased baking sheet in the oven while it preheats. This will create a nice “sear” of the potatoes when you put them on it and almost sort of “fry” them a bit. Thanks for the tip, Tyler Florence.
- Step 8 In a large bowl, toss together the potatoes and cornstarch. Coat well. Add the oil, salt, and vinegar powder.
- Step 9 Once the oven has preheated, arrange the fries on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes. Toss them around, and bake for another 15 until crispy and golden.
