Real chips

[naomi24]

Which oil/fat do you think makes the best real chips?

[ummmm]

Lard....I don't use it anymore but I do think it makes the nicest chips.

I use sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

[society]

I rarely make or eat chips. I always use canola or sunflower oil for frying it.

[horseshoes]

Definitely lard, but we never use it any more. We use vegetable oil, but rarely have chips these days. We tend to have home made potato wedges instead.

[madmaggot]

Beef dripping definitely makes the tastiest chips but you'd get into trouble with your doctor when your cholesterol level is tested!
I don't use any fat at all; just cut up the tatties and put into a very hot oven for about 40 minutes.

[heathfield]

I'm old enough to remember when no-one used oil for frying - it was always lard or dripping. A great many people, myself included, didn't like chips fried in oil when they started using it. Incidentally, it's why we in the UK like vinegar on our chips. In those days, it made the chips fried in fat easier to digest, we liked the taste, and so we still do it, (much to the amusement of those living on the Continent!).

[naomi24]

Really Heathfield? I didn't know that's why we use vinegar with our chips. I thought it was because it tastes good. I quite like the Continental habit of eating chips with mayonnaise too actually.

[joggerjayne]

Crispy chips are fab with mayo.

But down on the seafront, with a bag of fat, greasy chips, in soggy paper ...

... somehow, only vinegar will do.

[Invictas]

Beef Fat,
I had chips made with this at The Swan in West Malling,Kent.
I thought I had died and gone to chippie heaven.
I presume when it said "cooked in Beef Fat" on the menu that it meant fat from the joint rather than lard?

[heathfield]

Beef fat will be the fat skimmed off when beef dripping cools. Lard is made from pig fat, in particular, the fat from round the kidneys.

[piggynose]

usually fry mine chips in olive oil as its too bleeding greasy when using veg or corn oil

[piggynose]

correction ... my chips

[starone]

I fry mine in olive oil too but only because it is supposed to be more healthy. For taste you can't beat beef dripping, makes my mouth water thinking about it. But no good if you have high cholesterol - and I have.

[naomi24]

I bought some Crisp & Dry (rapeseed oil) the other day and that seems to work well. Thanks for your answers everyone.