this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (5 children)

Nobody in France calls French fries or French toast "French". We're definitely happy to attribute the fries to our Belgian friends and nobody thinks something as ubiquitous as toasts could have a single inventor. I think those are Anglo-Saxon cultural elements.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 minutes ago (1 children)

Anglo-Saxon cultural elements

You did your best to stamp those out back in 1066

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 minutes ago (1 children)

It's still how we call this group from France.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 minutes ago

Do you use it differently to "English"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

FIY: French toast is the english name for pain perdu.

Also probably not "invented" by the French, but no one thinks they invented simple toast.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago

Also here we call it "cafetière à piston" not french press.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

No we are not attributing fries to the Belgian, fries are french. The Belgian improved on our invention and make the best fries, but Frenchs invented it.

Content warning, a lot of french: https://www.musee-gourmandise.be/fr/musee-gourmandise/articles-de-fond?view=article&id=132%3Ala-veritable-histoire-de-la-frite&catid=77%3Aarticles-fond

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

The article states hypothesis and guesses, it doesn't seem to provide a definitive answer.

Its conclusion, machine translated:

In the first two chapters, we talked about the unlikely birth of the deep-fried potato, the result of a marriage between the potato, a popular vegetable par excellence, and cooking in a fat bath, reserved for high society. Where could this marriage have taken place? In a well-to-do kitchen with a fine frying pan? Impossible, as we saw earlier. Potatoes have no place there. In the home of the poor potato-eating bastard? Impossible too. They don't have enough fat.

Isn't the answer to this question to be found in the streets of Paris, where in the 18th century, itinerant merchants carried their frying pans filled with dubious grease, into which they plunged meats and vegetables smeared with doughnut batter? Or is it to be found in a rotisserie with more extensive equipment? It's a tempting hypothesis. As we know, the fried potato has spread through commerce. Wasn't it born there? Is it not a purely commercial product? The inventor of the French fried potato will probably always remain anonymous, but we can guess his trade: a merchant. We can also guess his origin: Parisian.

Pierre Leclercq

March 2009 - December 2010

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

As a Belgian, this is my position as well. Fries is part of the Belgian culinary culture, but it's chauvinism to claim they were invented in Belgium.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

Like the espresso, invented by the French (express or exprés? nobody knows which one it was, but making 1 little cup at a time was new and fast), then the Italians improved it, especially with gruppo 61, group head 61. Now they have the best coffee 😔

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

No idea what a French press is. Probably a cafetière ?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

Who the hell calls it a French press, I've never heard anyone call it that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The US calls everything "French" because they think it'll sell better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, I think so too, Japan does the same with food and luxury shops.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I never knew there was a different name for it. The cafetière is a new one on me, and I did French in high school. Guess we weren't talking about coffee much, though apparently french fries came up enough for me to remember pommes frites (they probably don't fry apples much over there).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Some fruits can be fried in the form of "beignets", which is fruit covered with batter and then fried. Apples are traditionally the most popular beignet recipe I think: "beignets aux pommes".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The typical beignets aux pommes are made with apple compote (apples slowly cooked in a pan with a bit of water until they become liquid).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I have never eaten beignets like that, where I'm from it's always a recognizable apple before it gets battered and fried (in thick slices if it's large or whole if small).

If I search for beignets aux pommes, the 1st, 2nd and 4th result is without compotes, just apple slices like I know them. The 3rd looks to be the compote version. Adding compote to the query finds recipes for "beignets a la compote de pommes", so I suspect that it's a regional thing that those are called apple beignets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Always seen the compote ones around Paris, what's your region?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Pommes de terre frites or patates frites

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

Most commonly, yes, just frites. Was just saying that pommes frites wasn't exactly right

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

Seems to be one and the same