I peeled and sliced a LOT of potatoes for homemade French fries - ended up not cooking them yet. They've been in cold water for 10 days in the refrigerator, are still white and healthy looking. Are they safe to rinse, dry and fry - and eat?

Seriously, you or your kitchen crew forgot about the peeled and sliced potatoes for ten days! Normally I’d say that the potatoes are just not that expensive and to just toss them and start over. The reason being… the potatoes will have absorbed as much of the water as their cells can and may burst or stay soggy when you pull them out of the water, dry and try to fry them. The main reason… if they hold onto that moisture it could degrade the frying oil quicker. Fry oil is a lot more expensive than potatoes to waste. However, if the potatoes haven’t discolored, it’s worth a try with a small batch to see what happens. If the frying oil foams excessively, that’s your clue that there is still a lot of moisture in the potatoes after soaking for a long period. From a food safety standpoint… were the potatoes and water solution covered the whole time, could anything have fallen into the water from the walk in or refrigerator? At any rate…let us know the results.

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