Sprinkle This On Your French Fries And They'll Be Impossible To Stop Eating

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There are some meals that you just can't eat without french fries. Making burgers for dinner? Fries are an absolute must. But while they are an incredibly basic food, they don't have to be lackluster in flavor. There are plenty of options to give them a punch, from salt to more creative french fry seasoning choices like curry powder or Old Bay, but one simple addition will make them absolutely irresistible. And once you try it, there's a good chance you will never eat them another way again.

When your fries are hot, fresh, and just out of the fryer, sprinkle them with some mustard powder and give them a good toss. This flavor hack works whether you prefer to cut your own potatoes and make them from scratch or go with store-bought frozen fries. 

The thing to know about mustard is that it's a culinary sleeper cell — it is lurking in the pantry just waiting to unleash its flavor superpowers. You can use just mustard powder, of course, but it mixes well with so many other spices that you can make a practically endless range of homemade fry seasoning blends by playing around with things you keep on hand. One option is to mix up a batch of seasoning that combines ingredients like mustard powder, salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and a little cayenne pepper for a spicy little kick. The mustard powder will amplify the other savory ingredients, working like a flavor booster to make the salt, garlic, and onion pop the moment the fries hit your taste buds. At the same time, the mustard will also give the fries a savory, tangy zing.

Potatoes are found in just about every cuisine around the world, and for good reason. You can cook them countless ways and they go with just about everything. But they are also a blank canvas that allow you to express your creativity with the flavor. By themselves, potatoes are fairly bland, with an earthy yet delicate taste. This makes them the perfect partner for deeper flavors, like the kind you get from mustard. Mustard powder, which comes from ground mustard seeds, has a pungent, tangy flavor that doesn't overpower, but rather enhances the natural flavor of other foods, like potatoes. 

There are different types of mustard powders to choose from, each of which adds a different spin to your fries. They actually come from a different type of mustard plant and vary in color, but the flavor is the most noticeable difference. The most common form, yellow mustard powder, is known for its vinegary, tangy flavor, and is the kind that creates your basic yellow ballpark mustard. It's good if you want your fries to have a more mild and familiar tang.  

On the flip side, black mustard seeds offer a much different flavor and are perfect if you want to add a real punch to your fries. The mustard powder derived from them has a kick, making it the perfect choice to put a more sharp and spicy twist to your fries. Because black mustard seeds are less common than yellow, you may have to go to a specialty store to find this kind of powder. Luckily, however, you can find options online, like this one by Spicy Organic on Amazon, so you can try the creative french fry hack.