Creating Brian Pickled French Fries: A Unique and Delicious Twist

Each September, we scour the country looking for America's best new restaurants, never knowing where we'll find the hot tent. Today, I'm excited to show you how we make our signature Brian Pickled French Fries here at Al's place. We start out by using red potatoes, which have a perfect balance of sweet and sour flavors that make them ideal for this recipe.

To begin, we peel the potatoes and give them an initial little tap to establish them in the brine. Once they're established, we can push them on through. Next, we rinse off the potatoes in just coiled water to get rid of excess starch from the outside. We fill up the bucket with cold water that brings down the temperature of the hot water that was in there, creating a perfect environment for fermentation.

We've found that adding a little bit of cabbage, also known as Little Braska family vegetable, helps to achieve a nice clean ferment. So, we add some cabbage leaves to the brine and mix them in according to specific manner. The brine is then added enough to cover the potatoes, and once it's all mixed up, we place the lid on the bucket.

After 96 hours, we pull the fries from the dry storage room and move them to the walk room. Yes, you can smell that funk – it's a sign that these fries are ready! We drain off the excess liquid, and if you feel them, they'll have changed texture completely. They'll just kind of "eat" like a pickle, but the potato itself will still taste great.

When we're ready to cook our Brian Pickled French Fries, we start by blanching them earlier in hot water at 375°F. This helps to achieve that crispy exterior and creamy interior. Once they're blanched, we set a timer for exactly 4 minutes – this ensures consistency and quality every time. When the timer goes off, we drop them into another fryer, where they'll get nice and crispy.

Because of the fermentation process, our fries won't color up like regular French fries would – they'll only get that light golden color to them. This is perfectly fine; they still need a little sprinkle of salt to bring out their flavor. We toss them from up high to ensure even cooking, then put them in a nice pile on the counter.

And there you have it – our signature Brian Pickled French Fries with smoked applesauce! They're a unique and delicious twist on traditional French fries, and we can't wait for you to try them.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneach September we scour the country looking for America's best new restaurants you never know where you're going to find the hot tent so I'm going to show you guys how we make uh Brian pickled french fries here at Al's place uh so we start out we always use red potatoes cuz they have that perfect kind of like um sweet sour kind of flavor to them you going to put the potato in there and you give it an initial little tap once it's establishing in there you can go ahead and push it on through and then next thing you want to do is you want to rinse off the potatoes in uh just coiled water you want to get off that excess starch from the outside fill up with water and if you can see in here how it's all kind of like mky At first that's what you're trying to get off all right that's pretty good now we just go ahead throw them into Coller here it's uh 24 G of salt per quart nice and steaming hot salt goes in now I fill it the rest of the way with cold water that brings down the temperature of the hot water that was in there all right so this here is a this white bucket it's a fermenting car booy uh we picked this up at like a beer supply store we also found through many trial and air that we need to add a little bit of cabbage for little Braska family uh vegetable to it to get that nice clean ferment to go and so I've got my potatoes in here I got some cabbage leaves I'm just kind of like mixing them in there a little bit in those specific manner so it's the brine going in enough to cover this Bri will be for the rest of potatoes then it gets the uh lid on it after 96 hours we pull them from the dry storage room and we moved them to the uh the walk room you can it's kind of stinky you know what I mean you you got a little bit of funk going on so these ones are good to go so I'm going to go ahead and drain this off all right if you feel them they're all that texture is totally changed they just kind of eat like a pickle um but the potato itself tastes great you know what I mean it's like it's kind of like eating a mix between an apple and a dough pickle you know cool so these guys are going to drain off and then they're good to go and we cook them for exactly 4 minutes per batch comes out really consistent and good set a timer for 4 minutes okay four minutes counting the idea there is that the first Fry at a low temperature is going to like cook the potato and make it like nice and creamy and a cooked product uh so that when you then drop it again you can have that crispy exterior and creamy interior now we're going to cook off those fries that we uh blanched earlier to take about a cup of fries here's a fryer it's turn up high at 375 drop them in so because of the fermentation process they don't color up the same way as the normal french fry would they only get it like kind like a light golden color to them that's fine they get nice and crispy toss them with a little sprinkle of salt they don't need much salt cuz they've already been Brown for minutes so they got some salt to them always toss from up high and then we just put them in a nice pile on here here you go you have a Brian pickle french fries with smoked applesauceeach September we scour the country looking for America's best new restaurants you never know where you're going to find the hot tent so I'm going to show you guys how we make uh Brian pickled french fries here at Al's place uh so we start out we always use red potatoes cuz they have that perfect kind of like um sweet sour kind of flavor to them you going to put the potato in there and you give it an initial little tap once it's establishing in there you can go ahead and push it on through and then next thing you want to do is you want to rinse off the potatoes in uh just coiled water you want to get off that excess starch from the outside fill up with water and if you can see in here how it's all kind of like mky At first that's what you're trying to get off all right that's pretty good now we just go ahead throw them into Coller here it's uh 24 G of salt per quart nice and steaming hot salt goes in now I fill it the rest of the way with cold water that brings down the temperature of the hot water that was in there all right so this here is a this white bucket it's a fermenting car booy uh we picked this up at like a beer supply store we also found through many trial and air that we need to add a little bit of cabbage for little Braska family uh vegetable to it to get that nice clean ferment to go and so I've got my potatoes in here I got some cabbage leaves I'm just kind of like mixing them in there a little bit in those specific manner so it's the brine going in enough to cover this Bri will be for the rest of potatoes then it gets the uh lid on it after 96 hours we pull them from the dry storage room and we moved them to the uh the walk room you can it's kind of stinky you know what I mean you you got a little bit of funk going on so these ones are good to go so I'm going to go ahead and drain this off all right if you feel them they're all that texture is totally changed they just kind of eat like a pickle um but the potato itself tastes great you know what I mean it's like it's kind of like eating a mix between an apple and a dough pickle you know cool so these guys are going to drain off and then they're good to go and we cook them for exactly 4 minutes per batch comes out really consistent and good set a timer for 4 minutes okay four minutes counting the idea there is that the first Fry at a low temperature is going to like cook the potato and make it like nice and creamy and a cooked product uh so that when you then drop it again you can have that crispy exterior and creamy interior now we're going to cook off those fries that we uh blanched earlier to take about a cup of fries here's a fryer it's turn up high at 375 drop them in so because of the fermentation process they don't color up the same way as the normal french fry would they only get it like kind like a light golden color to them that's fine they get nice and crispy toss them with a little sprinkle of salt they don't need much salt cuz they've already been Brown for minutes so they got some salt to them always toss from up high and then we just put them in a nice pile on here here you go you have a Brian pickle french fries with smoked applesauce\n"