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So when you perforate a metal sheet, you know that there can be jagged protrusions on the exit hole side.
So let's imagine a metal bowl which has been perforated in this way, so that the jaggy protrusions are on the interior of the bowl. This bowl can then serve as a colander to drain water from boiled
potatoes that you pour into it - but with the added benefit that shaking this jagged-colander bowl with the boiled potatoes in it can then heavily perforate and roughen up the surface of the potatoes.
Why do that? Because then you can put those roughened potatoes into your air fryer with suitable seasonings added, and then air-fry them to produce a nice luxuriously thick crunchy crispy crust.
(So when I say potatoes, I don't mean large whole potatoes, I mean either potato pieces or else baby potatoes. Nobody wants to fry a full-sized potato whole.)
Compare a roughened potato surface to a fuzzy sweater. It's all those little fuzzy protrusions, perforations and jaggies that will get crisped up first by the hot air of the air fryer. I suppose it could happen by baking in an oven too, but perhaps not quite as well. It could probably work well with deep-frying too, although with air frying at least you're also not consuming as much oil.
When you want a nice luxuriously thick crispy crunchy crust, like a good potato hashbroown or fried chicken batter gives, then this method would be the way to go.
Extra Crispy Roasted Potatoes (NYT)
https://www.youtube...watch?v=fS93o6RFPDg
[sanman, Jun 21 2024]
[link]
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An alternative apparatus might be something like a salad-spinner. Those are typically a cylindrical drum with holes in it, and you place your washed/wet salad inside to spin it with a hand-crank, and the moisture flies off due to centrifugal force (there's an outer vessel to catch the moisture that's flying off) |
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So with the salad-spinner approach, then the cylinder with the holes would have the jagged protrusions on its inner wall. Hand-cranking to spin the cylinder would centrifugally fling the boiled potatoes against the jaggies to perforate and roughen them, while also getting rid of any water. |
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Perhaps this spinning-cylinder approach would be more useful for french fries too - but the cylinder would have to be on its side (ie. cylindrical axis would be horizontal). You'd have to lay those fries inside the cylinder (Ouch! Metal jaggies could be a particular hazard there) |
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Interior volume should not be overpacked with too many potato pieces, in order to facilitate their movement and jaggification. Recommend only half-fill at most. |
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Also, now that I think of it -- perhaps this spinning cylinder approach could be useful for meat tenderizing and marination as well. |
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So if you put your meat pieces into the spinnable horizontal cylinder, and the bottom part of that horizontal cylinder is then dipped in a pool of marinade and then spun, then the meat will be dunking in and out of the marinade while also continually being perforated. This simultaneous marinading and perforating could help the marinade to better penetrate the meat. |
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[+] Grate idea. Likely impractical, difficult to clean, and possible chance of injury. IOW, half-baked. |
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@ a1: Yes, a grater would be a better example of what the surface should look like. But people use and clean graters all the time quite uneventfully without injury. Actually, there are already hand-cranked cylindrical graters - this one would just be larger and act as a vessel too, with grating surface on the inside. Just clean it with a bottle cleaner brush (item could be sold with a brush) |
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To put the potatoes/fries inside the cylinder, just stand it upright (cylindrical axis vertical) and drop the fries in. Then snap the door/lid shut, put it back on its side and shake it a bit to redistribute fries, and then begin cranking/spinning. |
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I think you should put this to a test. Prep a batch of taters for the air fryer. Roughen half of them up with a fork, leave the others unscored. Cook up the whole batch and let us know how they compare. |
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There's a video where some guy from New York Times roughens up potatoes he's boiled, by shaking them up in a steel bowl (no special surface), and then roasts them. He claims they have a better crust. See link. |
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