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Most people love Five Guys for its handmade burgers, while others appreciate it for its incredible milkshakes (Five Guys was ranked third in our best fast food milkshake rankings for a reason). However, there are some people who love Five Guys for things such as the cork board of crayon drawings and bright red wall decor, or the ritual of filling a tiny basket with peanuts while you wait for your food to be ready. But, there are many, many people who simply love Five Guys for its fries, which are fried exclusively in the oil made from the same peanuts you find in store.
As it turns out, the peanuts inside of Five Guys aren’t for show. Yes, you can snack on them while you’re in the restaurant, but they’re put to use behind the counter, too. Both the restaurant’s regular fries and Cajun-style fries are fried with the nut oil made from the peanuts. Chad Murrell, one of the founder’s real-life five sons, claimed that the chain’s fries get their signature “melt-in-your-mouth buttery taste” thanks to use of peanut oil, in an exclusive interview with Food Republic. Given that fries are Five Guys’ passion, you can feel assured that the nearly-forty-year-old chain won’t be making any changes to its recipe anytime soon. So, you don’t have to worry about the chain “RFK”-ing its fries.
Five Guys loves peanut oil
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Following in the footsteps of Five Guys’ rule about fresh, never frozen food, the burger joint’s fries are also made fresh on-site. The chain is picky about the specific kind of potatoes it uses for fries, opting only to utilize spuds grown in Idaho. Five Guys’ potatoes are hand cut and then blanched in water before a gentle, two and a half minute pre-fry in the peanut oil. Then, just before serving, the fries are dropped in the peanut oil again before the golden beauties go into the customer’s waiting hands. According to Chad Murrell’s interview with Food Republic, the peanut oil at Five Guys is changed and filtered multiple times throughout the day.
While it may be considered a seed oil, peanut oil has a higher smoke point than other cooking oils like canola oil, making it preferable for frying, sautéing, and deep frying. This might not be great news for those with nut allergies, but many people prefer using peanut oil for its rather neutral taste — and Murrell assures customers that no other items in the restaurant touch it. While some say that they like to use peanut oil for the crispiness it lends to certain foods, Murrell prefers using peanut oil in Five Guys’ fries — as opposed to the hydrogenated oils commonly used by other chains — because of the soft and buttery consistency it lends them, making them perfect for soaking up the bottles of malt vinegar also found in store.
Dining and Cooking