Triple Cooked in Beef Dripping Frozen Oven Chips Supermarket Own
T here are no doubt some who, in the decline of the chip pan, will see everything that it is wrong with namby-pamby modern Britain – a paradoxically lazy and health-obsessed country denying itself the pleasure of home-fried chips because of exaggerated safety concerns.
But they will be in a tiny minority. McCain introduced frozen oven chips to Britain in 1979. By 2002, 74% of chips eaten at home were oven chips. This £450m-a-year market continues to flourish. Not just because oven chips are the healthier option – around 30% fewer calories and half the fat of frying your own – or our understandable fear of chip-pan fires (which dropped by 71% in the decade to 2014), but also because, whisper it, the best oven chips are actually pretty good now.
Sure, there are still many limp and anaemic versions out there and, frankly – as Tom Kerridge reminded the nation on BBC2's The Best of British Takeaways this week – none will ever match the hot, glossy pleasure of a portion direct from your local chippy. In particular, industrial food's attempt to mimic that just-fried crispness by coating oven chips in flours (battering them, essentially), is still very much a work in progress. But, nonetheless, there are some highly creditable everyday chips out there. About 60% of Britons bought oven chips last year and, of course, McCain dominates this market. But do any of the supermarket own-brands compare with the Canadian pioneers?
Morrisons, The Best chunky oven chips, 1.5kg, £2.45
Exactly how chunky do you want your chips? Because some of these look like timbers a lumberjack might use to build a winter cabin. Frankly, it does Morrisons no favours. All the flavour is in the small, dark, crunchier shards. Bar some browning along their edges, the bigger chips are pasty lumps; their interiors, for the most part, a too-dry mass of carbs.
5/10
Waitrose, crisp and fluffy chunky chips, 1.5kg, £2.25
Lightly battering oven chips produces, at best, a crispiness that is more like scrunching cellophane than shattering glass. Colouring is problematic, too. Typically, these Waitrose chips are as patchily tanned as a British holidaymaker. But they taste, well, not bad at all. Inside, the chips are creamy and air-light, like finely whipped mash loaded with butter. Get a caramelised edge in the same mouthful and it is impressive.
7/10
Tesco, Finest chunky chips, 450g, £2.60
Now, these are weird. Sold chilled (also suitable for home freezing, which they had been), they look promisingly golden and blistered with rusty patches. However, they taste bizarrely sweet and vegetal, their flavour closer to sweet potato fries or honey-roasted parsnips than chips. The chips are smooth and moist within but, while it is not actively unpleasant, that sweetness is a barrier.
5/10
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference chunky chips, 1.5kg, £2.40
There is a distinctive, highly unappetising whiff of damp, musty clothing about these chips. Their colour, if attractive in parts, is patchier than the mobile phone coverage in Cumbria. Those chips that have browned reasonably evenly offer a definitive crunch and smooth, fluffy interiors that flash persuasively with earthier potato flavours. It is hit and miss, though: several chips are dry and floury.
6/10
Aldi, Specially Selected chunky oven chips, 1.5kg, £1.85
Aldi's chips rock a pretty thorough bronze colouration, and even the fatter ones carry a crisp-ish bite and a nicely caramelised, salt-edged flavour. But do they feel like a treat? Not quite. While the innards of the best chip-shop chips are slippery and buttery, the potato flesh here tastes as plain, if not as abstemious, as a jacket potato. Not a million miles from upmarket pub chips, but staid where you crave a little dirt and grease.
7/10
Asda, Extra Special chunky oven chips, 1.5kg, £2.48
Like a lot of these chips, Asda's steadfastly refuse to take on much colour – bar their browned tips – even when pushed past their recommended cooking time. The bigger chips particularly are wan, and dense and squidgy in that archetypal oven chip way. The inner textures are all over the place, from authentically chip-shop soft through stodgy mash to borderline undercooked. Poor.
4/10
Ocado, Albert Bartlett homestyle chips, 1.5kg, £2.50
These chips are authentically domestic in size (think: your little finger, not thumb) and a handsome yellowy-orange colour (turmeric and paprika extract are listed ingredients). But beyond that? Meh! You get shallow, infrequent bursts of savoury flavour from the chewier edges of those chips that have crisped up but, otherwise, the interiors are so bland, dry and worthy you are prey to, if not dehydration, certainly abject boredom.
5/10
M&S, triple-cooked chips, 600g, £2.50
These beef dripping-coated spuds are not the humdinger you might expect. Naturally, they boast a beefy flavour, reminiscent of Yorkshire puddings, but, in general, they do not brown deeply enough to deliver a memorable crispness. Many had that standard, putty-ish oven chip texture. Despite that dripping, the inner potato lacks lip-smacking unctuousness, too. It is hard going, like mash that desperately needs a big glug of cream.
6/10
Co-op, Irresistible triple-cooked chunky chips, 400g, £2
Do not be alarmed. Covered in the sharp, dark brown, almost blackened rough edges we all aim to create on roast potatoes, these chips look like evidence retrieved from a devastating fire. But, like roasties, they have a bold, stridently savoury flavour edged with caramelised sweetness. If there is a criticism, it is that these relatively slim chips are all about those crusty surfaces; they lack fluffy middles. Still, very tasty.
8/10
McCain, triple-cooked gastro chips, 700g, £2.50
You are playing arterial Russian roulette here (15.2g of fat/100g; most oven chips are nearer 4g), but, by God, it is worth it. Liberally slathered in beef dripping – it forms a sizzling pool in the baking tray – these are beautifully bronzed chips that pack an authentic glassy, triple-cooked crunch and offer the full spectrum of Maillard caramelised flavours: beefiness; nutty, browned butters; salted crisps; sweet roasties. The interior potato is, rightly, a smooth, blank canvas for this action. Brilliant.
9/10
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/mar/15/taste-test-oven-chips-crisp-fluffy-fries-mccain-supermarket-best
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