Burgers, Dogs, & Pizza, Oh My!

Posts Tagged ‘Frozen French Fries’

Some years ago, an “expert” told me in the future, half the products in a grocery store will be branded restaurant foods.  I scoffed.

Shouldn’t have, he was right.  No matter your favorite fast food or casual dining choice, it’s very likely you’ll find products with their names on them in the frozen food section of your grocery.  Who knew?  (Except that expert).

I’ve written about White Castle often, America’s oldest burger chain, they’ve had frozen burgers in the store for a long while, maybe one of the first chains to embark down this road.

Today I tried out their frozen crinkle cut fries, which is a new offering (at least to me).  I’ve taken to crinkle cuts lately, and it seems so have many fast food chains, someone somewhere thinks they are “retro” and since we all hunger for the past, they’ve popped up on a lot of menues.  Fine with me. I’ve had them at Zaxby’s, Shake Shack,  Culvers, as well as that granddaddy of iconic Chicago hot dog stands, Superdawg.  All excellent.

I had pretty low expectations for the White Castle variety, most of the frozen fast food sides I have tried have been somewhat of a disappointment, hardly resembling the restaurant product.

Delightfully, my expectations were exceeded, and these crinkles are crisp and tasty out of the oven. Instructions are to bake them at a higher temp than most frozen fries, and I suspect that’s one key to their success;  I caution you to keep an eye on them in the oven, because they can go from hot and crispy to rock like in a hurry.

I think they are a fair representation of the restaurant product, perhaps a wee bit smaller, not sure.  I’ll remember to check next time I’m in a Castle. And yes, I’d buy these regularly.

White Castle Frozen Fries Review

I’ve puked out a lot of words on restaurant brands in grocery stores, just use our search box at the upper left to find articles on Steak N Shake, Fatburger, and many more like products. Seems like restaurant brands will eventually take over the aisles —-  I’ll have to switch to a better class of grocery store.

Today I tried frozen fries with the Red Robin brand. For some reason, they are not bottomless like at the restaurant – you will run out at home. The label says “seasoned steak fries,” and that is an apt description.  They tout using Red Robin’s exclusive Seasoning, and  the product is made for the company by food giant ConAgra (Slim Jims, Hebrew National, Swiss Miss, Hunts, Wesson, blah blah blah).

It’s funny,  it’s an accident that I got them. They were crammed behind the frozen fries from Rallys/Checkers at the store. (Lately, I have been hearing all sorts of tales about  how food company reps screw with competitors – I know of one pizza company that is often the victim, having their boxes crushed, thawed and refrozen – poor guys). I would have passed on the Rally’s in any case, once I saw the package, they look like one of those extruded fry products, not my personal preference.

Kind of “unusual” or “atypical” at least, the heating instructions for the Red Robin fries – 425 for 30 minutes if you’re doing  the whole bag. Seems long, but I always follow the directions the first time. Came out OK at the required heat and time. Pictures below of both raw and baked.  Here’s a couple of funny points.  I have seen a couple of reviews of this product saying that they were WAY spicier than the restaurant ones, even to the point of nearly being inedible. I didn’t find that to be true, and I’m a pussy about spice ‘heat.’ At least my bag contents were ‘gently seasoned’ with a pretty typical version of seasoned salt.  (Although when you look at the pic of the unbaked taters, they do appear to have heavy seasoning).

BUT.   As I said earlier, I passed on the Checkers because they were an extruded product, and DAMN, so were these.   What are extruded fries? They make a potato slurry, kind of like a wetter version of mashed potatoes, and push the slurry through a mold to make fry shapes before frying. The result is a fairly crispy outside, and a very soft inside.  To me, they just bare no resemblance to POTATOES, but I know they are very popular with many people.   I report.  You decide.

It’s a 22 ounce package, price should be under $4 at your store. Or Wal Mart. Package lists 26 different ingredients to make these “potatoes with salt.”  And BTW?  I hate that the restaurant  segment is taking over the grocery store.

Unbaked Fries

Baked Fries

Red Robin Frozen Fries