French Fry Diary 781: Lamb Weston Super Crispy Crinkle Cut Fries

Last year ConAgra Foods, one of the world's biggest French fries manufacturers, acquired Lamb Weston, another of the world's largest fry manufacturers. Recently they spun Lamb Weston off as its own frozen product line, and they're just now starting to show up in stores. 

Any fry from Lamb Weston should be great, as most fast food franchise fries probably originally came from them anyway.  Ideally it should be a superior product as you're cutting out the middleman, right?  I've seen four different varieties of frozen grocery fries with the Lamb Weston name on them - Crinkle Cut, Hand Cut, Thick Cut Hash Browns, and Diced Hash Browns, the last two obviously breakfast selections. They also have Steak Cut, Shoestring, and Potato Puffs.

I picked up a bag of the Super Crispy Crinkle Cut Fries.  There's a giant Grown in Idaho symbol on the bag that also proclaims 100% Real Potatoes.  Upon opening the bag I was surprised to see natural cut fries.  The skin-on crinkle cut French fry is indeed a rare beast.  And even though I have become accustomed to almost exclusively air-fried fries, I put a serving of these babies on a pan to bake, per their official cooking instructions.

The fries needed a minute or so more cook time than the directions indicated, but in any case they came out great, super crispy as promised, hot and soft inside.  I really enjoyed them, and they were just as good when air-fried.  Thumbs up.

French Fry Diary 80: Burger King at Home 2

Welcome back to my reviews of ConAgra’s new Burger King fries for your home microwave. Last time I made the King Wedgez and today I’m going to give one of the other varieties a shot.

I tried the King Krinkz, the seasoned crinkle cut French fries. I did the same process as last time – Shake, Vent, Zap, Tap and Rip. This time however, while the box was in the microwave it smelled like they were burning. I was worried for a bit but let the three minute cook time run its course. I was hoping for another handy packaging miracle after I got them out, but unfortunately the Frypod fell apart when I ripped. Notably, just like the King Wedgez, this 'frypod' would have been half-empty anyway. There’s not many fries in these things.

The fries themselves were just standard frozen crinkle cuts that could have been purchased for much less at any grocery store, and they also had a weird orange tinge, an unhealthy too-much-time-in-the-tanning-booth orange. At first I wasn’t sure if they were seasoned or just burnt.

The seasoning has a hot spicy bite and a not-so-great aftertaste. The fries aren’t so good and have the taste and texture of bad microwave fries. Eat them quick (if you dare) because the longer they sit, the harder they get. Again, Ore-Ida microwaves are much much better. These are bad fries.

French Fry Diary 79: Burger King at Home 1

As mentioned here at French Fry Diary, Burger King is invading your grocer’s freezer. In fact, they are there now.

The good news is that instead of the crappy fries you can get at any Burger King, these are different. They come in three varieties: King Krinkz – seasoned crinkle cuts, King Kolassalz – bigger crinkle cuts, and King Wedgez – seasoned potato wedges. Thankfully none of the regular ones, but the package itself, in which the fries cook in your microwave, becomes an ersatz Frypod – an "Eazy Tranport Frypod." I gotta give them props for packaging at least.

I tried the King Wedgez first. The directions were oversimplified, with instructions like Shake, Vent, Zap, Cool, Tap, Rip, and of course, Eat. The end result, if you tear it right, does look like the type of package fries used to come in a few years back, but ironically, not really much like what we know as a Frypod.

There weren’t all that many fries inside either, granted they were big, but still maybe only about ten to a dozen total. The King Wedgez were seasoned potato wedges, similar to those at KFC, but with vertical medium ripples. The ripples were not as small as those at Famous Dave’s, but not as big as those on wavy potato chips. The fries were not really very tasty either – a little soggy and not very crisp (or even "Krispy!" as the package itself promises), but with a good pepper aroma that emanates from the microwave while they’re cooking.

All in all, the experience was fun – the packaging, the adventure of making them, etc., but the fries not so much. Ore-Ida microwave fries are better, but not as much fun. Next time we’ll try the King Krinkz and King Kolassalz and see how they are.

Burger King Fries in Stores?

Will you be able to buy Burger King’s crappy French fries in your grocer’s freezer soon? The magic fry 8 ball seems to indicate ‘yes.’

According to Con Agra Foods, Lamb Weston has entered into an agreement with Burger King to produce a microwavable fry package, similar to BK’s Frypod, to supermarkets and Wal-Marts this fall.

The full article can be found here.