French fries don’t taste as good as they were when fresh if you try to reheat them later. Most people toss out the leftover ones!
However, if you know a few tricks of how to keep them warm until later, you’ll never throw them out again. Keep them ready for your next midnight snack…
Keeping your fries warm can be tricky because they can get soggy and soft if you put them in airtight containers and dry and floury if you keep them in the wrapping paper.
The first trick to remember if you will be storing some fries for later is don’t put sauce on them. By all means, put sauce on the ones you’re eating now, but not on the ones that are going to be left. The sauce will soak into them, causing them to become soggy and unpleasant.
Here we have listed a few easy and successful ways of keeping your French fries warm.
How to Keep French Fries Warm
1. Wrap them in aluminum foil
This is our tested and best way to keep your leftover French fries and help them retain their temperature. Wrap them in a sheet of aluminum foil. This retains the heat and keeps them from drying out. It doesn’t use any electricity either!
2. Keep them in a dishcloth
Keeping your French fries in a thick cloth can help them retain some heat without getting soggy and soft. The cloth acts as an insulator for the heat.
It will also absorb any excess oil. Make sure the dishtowel you use is clean and hygienic. Wash it in hot, soapy water later to remove the oil.
3. Put them into a hotpot
If you’re lucky enough to have a hotpot, this is a great way to store leftover food for a couple of hours. The hotpot will keep your leftover fries warm and moist until you’re ready to finish them. Remember to switch it onto the “keep warm” function.
4. Store them in the original packaging
If you leave your French fries open and exposed to the air, this will lead to both moisture and heat loss from your yummy fries.
However, if you keep them in the Styrofoam packaging you bought them in, this can keep them warm successfully, but your fries will lose their crispiness and will start to wilt. If they came in paper packaging, this is better.
Wilting of fries can occur because Styrofoam containers can cause steaming and condensation inside the packaging, which will make your fries soggy.
However, using paper packaging or cardboard packaging will allow ventilation of all the steam. The steam will move out this way, and the packaging can breathe, allowing some crispiness to be retained.
3 Tips for Maintaining Both Texture and Warmth
- Make Holes in Your Container
To allow for steam ventilation, you can make vent holes in your packaging that are large enough to allow all the steam to move out of the packaging.
These vent holes allow airflow and prevent steam from dripping moisture onto your French fries. However, you must make sure that they are not large enough to make your fries lose the heat.
A good way to make the right-sized holes is to use a plastic knife or fork with the takeout fries.
- The Wrapping Should Not Be Too Tight
If you make your package wrapping too tight, then it can build up moisture inside. The moisture will cause your fries to become soft and soggy. You must make sure that you have not wrapped your French fries too tightly in the packaging.
- Do Not Reheat in the Microwave
If you have left your fries to become cold and dried out because you were planning to reheat them using the microwave, then please don’t!
Reheating your French fries in the microwave will make them soft and cause them to lose their texture. Not only will the fries lose their texture, but the oil in the fries will taste rancid and old.
Conclusion
Keeping French fries warm will never retain all of their original crispness. However, hopefully, these tips will help you enjoy your fries later and help you keep them in a reasonably moist, crispy condition.