Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Has anyone noticed that their fries have gotten worse over the last year or so? Since day one in 1948 In & Out used a Shaver Keen Kutter for cutting their fries. Most of the high end steak houses and restaurants use the Keen Kutter because of their quality and unique design of the blades. The blades are thin & cut through the french fry rather then trying to "force" the potatoes through the cutting head with thick blades. They switched to what looks to be a "Nemco" machine or hybrid that has thick blades. When you apply pressure on the potatoes and try to push them through this thick blade design, the patatoe is forced through the cutting head. Were the blade makes contact with the potato it puts stress on the potato. When the cut portion of the potato is exiting the blades it wants to expand from the preasure of trying to get by the bigger blades. When this happens, the potato edges crack or break and allows oxygen to enter through these stress cracks. What does that matter you may ask? Now when the cut fries are being fried, the oil gets inside these cracks which enter the patoto and cook it uneavenly. Not to mention it changes the nutritional facts that have been the same for 60 years. I bet they didn't re-test the fries after they switched their process. I know notice that their a alot more broken little 1/8 & 1/4 picece fries on my tray.

I heard that over the years that the potato's that In & Out grow/buy have gotten bigger and didn't fit the Shaver cutting head, thus changing to a bigger head and thicker blade design. Consistency is key and after 60 years of the same good french fry that helped the company grow to what it is today... why change something that isn't broken.