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French fries (called french fries in the United States and Canada, chips in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Commonwealth [though not Canada]; frites (or pommes frites) in France and Belgium) are potatoes that have been cut and deep-fried (i.e., french-fried potatoes). The name is often shortened to just fries in the United States. Usually, the "f" in french of french fries is not an uppercase f, since it does not refer to the nationality. French fries are distinct from potato chips (also called crisps).
Most authorities believe that french fries are Belgian in origin, but that they have gained international prominence due to their pre-eminence in American fast-food menus, propagated by fast-food chains like McDonald's and Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia). In America, french fries are typically served with hamburgers. They are also often eaten with meat, fish, and vegetables or by themselves. They also make up half of the classic food combination fish and chipsFish and chips is deep-fried fish in batter and deep-fried potatoes, a popular take-away food originally from the United Kingdom, but also very popular in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and some coastal towns of Netherland and Norway, and also in.
The largest producer of french fries in the world is McCain Foods LimitedMcCain Foods Limited a company established in 1957 by the McCain brothers in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada. The worlds largest producer of French fries and other oven-ready frozen foods. McCain foods has more than 18,000 employees, approximately 55, a Canadian company in Florenceville, New BrunswickThe village of Florenceville is located on the banks of the St. John River, in Carleton County in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The village has a population of less than 400 people, but is the world headquarters for McCain Foods Limited, the lar. Such is the popularity of french fries that McCain Foods Limited can produce potato products at the rate of more than 1,000,000 lb/h (125 kg/s) in its 30 potato processing plants on six continents around the world.
There are many theories about the origin of the American name of the dish. By one account, the fried potatoes are called french fries because they are commonly fried in the Belgo-French manner (that is to say frying them twice with a small pause in the middle). Other accounts say that they were once called German fries but the name was changed either for political reasons (Germany was once the enemy of the United States) or simple historical reasons (the traditional theory poses that it was in France during World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of that American soldiers first encountered the dish. However, recent historical evidence indicates that North-American soldiers were actually first served the dish in the Belgian part of the trenches but mistakingly thought they were in France. This makes all together more sense, as fries were and still are the national dish of Belgium, and this also implies that the historically correct name for the dish really should be "Belgian Fries"). It is also possible that it is a misunderstanding of the archaic British usage of "French fried potatoes" to mean sauté potatoes, i.e. the French way of shallow frying potatoes that have been peeled, parboiled , allowed to cool and then sliced thinly; this is far more convenient than deep frying if frying other items as well, or if using previously prepared materials in a hurry (as in the English cooked breakfast). The simplest expanation of the origin of the name, however, is that the verb "to french" is a cooking term meaning "to cut into thin strings"; hence, they are potatoes that have been frenched, then fried.