To me, a meal that says Appalachia like no other is soup beans, fried potatoes and cornbread. I hadn’t posted a recipe for fried potatoes before because I wasn’t sure I could come up with that much to say. But then I thought, this is me we are taking about. I can always find something to say!
The thing about fried potatoes is that every cook’s is going to taste a little different. Much depends on the fat used, how you cut the potatoes and how brown you fry them. My mom always cut hers in smallish squares and that’s my cutting style as well. My grandma made hers into bigger slices and my mother in law cuts hers into tiny cubes.
I like my fried potatoes very brown with lots of crispy ones in the mix but my husband doesn’t. I sort of fry mine into a compromise: not as brown as my mom’s and not as pale as his mom’s.
I use canola or vegetable oil for frying but any kind of fat will do. Lard is traditional and Crisco is also popular. Some people add onions to their potatoes and fry it all up together. I’m a purist: I just use potatoes, salt and some oil for frying.
I cut my potatoes up very similar to how my mom does. This is two very large potatoes, cut up and ready to fry. And of course, I used my electric potato peeler to peel those suckers!
I heat my oil up for a few minutes, not until it’s screaming hot but warm enough to give me a sizzle when I put the potatoes in. I gently add in the potatoes being careful not to splatter oil. I give the potatoes a generous shake of salt and cover them up.
If you want your potatoes crispy, you’ll want to get let them fry for a few minutes. If you are going for a less brown tater, you’ll turn them with a spatula in just a couple of minutes. I give a generous shake of salt with each turn.
You want your potatoes to be cooked through so they should break apart easily when you poke ’em with the corner of your spatula. When the potatoes are done, I spoon them over to a paper towel lined bowl. I let them sit for a few minutes then remove the paper towel. This takes away some of the greasiness.
Here they are served up with cornbread and salmon patties. Soup beans were hanging out in the Instant Pot.
So tell me, how do you like your fried potatoes? Small pieces? Large pieces? Brown and crispy or soft and pale?