Crisp. Golden. Cooked to perfection. Lightly salted. We’re talking about Fuel Shack french fries, of course. They’re a staple on the Fuel Shack menu, and just about any restaurant that serves burgers, steak and other beef products.

One of the best things about french fries is that they are served very close to the way they come out of the ground with very little processing.

Let’s take a look at how they’re made.

 French fries Are Grown

In case you weren’t sure, french fries start out as potatoes. All of our fries start out as potatoes that are grown in the U.S.A. Most likely in Idaho, Washington state or Oregon. They’re grown outdoors in long, mounded dirt rows in various varieties. Potatoes come in different shapes and sizes and are, like our customers, they’re all beautiful.

French Fries Are Peeled

One of the easiest ways to clean a potato when it comes out of the ground is to peel the skin off it. The peel is typically composted and used to enrich the soil so more potatoes can be grown. The peeled potatoes are then rinsed so they are totally clean.

French Fries Are Fired Through a Canon

Wait, what? Oh you didn’t know? That’s right – to get our fries cut to roughly equal width, each peeled and rinsed potato is fired through a water canon at roughly 70 miles per hour. That’s about 110 kilometers per hour. The fries need to have a square shape to them so that when they are placed in a fryer, they are cooked evenly throughout. There will always be some pieces that are smaller and will cook crispier, and that’s ok with most folks.

French Fries Are Partially Cooked

In order to save time and ensure fries reach that golden brown tone that everyone loves, they’re partially cooked and then subjected to some natural ingredients that help keep them fresh when they get to our locations for final cooking. But before that…

French Fries Are Frozen Fresh

No fancy engineering here, just another way we keep our fries as fresh as possible for when they reach our Fuel Shack locations. Freezing French fries doesn’t change the taste at all – in fact, it preserves the freshness so that they are as fresh as possible by the time they hit your plate. And by that time, there’s not much left before they’re gone.

And there you have it – now you know how our fries come from the ground in some far-off state in the U.S. and make it to your plate in our Fuel Shack locations.

Do you do anything unusual with your fries? Eat them with mayo instead of ketchup? Always eat them before your burger? Let us know in the comments!