How to Make Crispy Fries at Home with One Secret Ingredient

Crispy french fries at home aren’t a myth. In fact, the secret to crispy homemade fries is a single ingredient you probably already have in your pantry or fridge.

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Once upon a time—way back in the late 1970s—a little device called the Presto Fry Daddy hit the market. Besides becoming a default disappointing Christmas gift for moms across the nation, the little countertop deep fryer made it possible to make french fries that tasted way more like fast food fries than oven fries ever could. But as time went on and people became more concerned about the imminent hardening of their arteries, the Fry Daddy sort of fell out of fashion. Now, when we want crispy french fries at home, we look to the air fryer … but there’s also a simple hack that can help if the ol’ countertop convection oven just isn’t cutting it.

The secret ingredient is … baking soda!

Now, I should make clear that this isn’t a hack for frozen french fries—you’re on your own with those, although we’ve found a bunch that get pretty damn crispy in the oven and air fryer. Rather, this is a hack for freshly cut french fries. Now, before you click away, let me assure you that truly homemade fries aren’t that hard to pull off. Look, we even reviewed veggie slicers and choppers to help expedite the process!

The cutting is incidental to what we’re doing here. According to folks on Reddit, you can cut ‘em however you want ‘em—so whether you like fatty-boom-batty steak fries or shoestrings, you’re good. The key is adding baking soda (not baking powder, baking soda) to the water when you boil the cut potatoes.

Why? What does it do?

A few science-y things are at play here. First of all you don’t need to add a lot of baking soda for this to work: the internet suggests ¼ tsp to ½ tsp per quart of water you’re boiling. And you don’t have to boil the potatoes for long either—simply “parboil” them for around five minutes.

See, the baking soda creates an alkaline environment that breaks down the starch and pectin in the potato’s outer surfaces. When the potatoes are fried, air fried, or even baked, those broken down surfaces create a crispy-crunchy crust.

Sounds easy! Any other tips so I don’t screw it up?

Yep, just one. After you parboil the potatoes in the baking soda-water mixture, be sure to COMPLETELY dry them with a towel or paper towel. As Time very dramatically puts it, “Moisture is the enemy of crispness.”

Crispy fries without an old-fangled Fry Daddy? The future is now!

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.