They’re the stuff of fast-food legend.
The “they” is McDonald’s original-formulation French fries. Made from fresh Russet potatoes and fried in beef tallow, the French fries served at McDonald’s restaurants in the 1960s and ’70s supposedly earned the praise of late 20th century food luminaries like James Beard and Julia Child.
Certainly today’s restaurant French fries aren’t often memorable. Industrially processed, flash frozen, and sometimes “coated” to give the product better “plate life,” the modern French fry is nothing like the “pommes frites” from which they are originally descended.