>>>>>Define 'crispy'. Do you want them to snap when bent like crispy bacon? How crisp is crispy?
>>>>
>>>>The discussion started, really, with McDonald's "fries" always being "crispy", so use those as your guide.
>>>
>>>But their fries are frozen. Not a good comparison. I have made crispy fresh fries, but the oil had to be pretty hot to start with and could not put many fries in at a time or it cools the oil down.
>>
>>That's what started the whole discussion.. after "crispy" was mentioned I countered with 'crispy isn't the natural state of FRESH French fries (and the others said it was).
>>
>>I make 1 potato's worth of fries in a batch, with oil near smoking.
>>Last night I tried the drying them off trick and it made a big difference in the cooking time (much shorter) but not a whit crispier.
>>
>>I will be trying the double-cooking method some time in the future.
>
>Did you not merit my oven-drying submission?

Finally tried it that way.
They were definitely towards crispy, but I found that:
a) most develped a 'skin' when fried;
b) some were not quite cooked through.

All in all, too much work and probably too much precision required.

Next trial... twice-cooking.
cheers