 Potato chips |
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Saratoga Springs, New York, United States |
| Dish details | |
| Course served | Snack, Side Dish |
| Serving temperature | Room temperature |
Potato chips (American English, Australian English and Canadian English: chips; Irish English and British English: crisps) are thin slices of potato that are deep fried or baked until crispy. Potato chips serve as an appetizer, side dish, or snack. Commercial varieties are packaged for sale, usually in bags. The basic chips are cooked and salted, and additional varieties are manufactured using various flavorings and ingredients including seasonings, herbs, spices, cheeses, and artificial additives. Chips are a predominant part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries and numerous other Western nations.
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The original potato chip recipe was created by George Crum, the son of an African American father and Native American mother, in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 24, 1853.[1] Fed up with a customer who continued to send his fried potatoes back complaining that they were too thick and soggy, Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they could not be eaten with a fork. As they could not be fried normally in a pan, he decided to stir-fry the potato slices. Against Crum's expectation, the guest was ecstatic about the new chips and they soon became a regular item on the lodge's menu, under the name "Saratoga Chips." They eventually became popular throughout New York and New England. One version of this story identifies Cornelius Vanderbilt as the customer who wanted them thinner.
In the 20th century, potato chips spread beyond chef-cooked restaurant fare and began to be mass produced for home consumption; Dayton, Ohio-based Mike-sell's Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, calls itself the "oldest potato chip company in the United States".[2] Chips sold at markets were usually sold in tins or scooped out of storefront glass bins. The early potato chip bag was wax paper with the ends ironed together.
There is little consistency in the English speaking world for names of fried potato cuttings. American and Canadian English use "chips" for the above mentioned dish—this term is also used (but not universally) in other parts of the world, due to the influence of American culture—and sometimes "crisps" for the same made from batter, and "French fries" for the hot crispy batons with a soft core. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, "crisps" are the brittle slices eaten at room temperature and 'chips' refer to the hot dish (as in "fish and chips"). In Australia, New Zealand and some parts of South Africa, both forms of potato product are simply known as "chips", as are the larger "home-style" potato crisps. Sometimes the distinction is made between "hot chips" (fried potatoes) and "packet crisps", or simply "potato chips" in Australia and New Zealand.
The global potato chips market generated total revenues of US$16.4 billion in 2005. This accounted for 35.5% of the total savory snacks market in that year (US$46.1 billion).[3]
In an idea was originated by the Smiths Potato Crisps Company Ltd, formed in 1920,[4] Frank Smith originally packaged a twist of salt with his crisps in greaseproof paper bags, which were then sold around London.
The potato chip remained otherwise unseasoned until an innovation by Joe "Spud" Murphy (1923–2001),[5] the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed a technology to add seasoning during manufacture in the 1950s. Though he had a small company, consisting almost entirely of his immediate family who prepared the crisps, the owner had long proved himself an innovator. After some trial and error, he produced the world's first seasoned crisps, Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar.
The innovation became an overnight sensation in the food industry, with the heads of some of the biggest potato chip companies in the United States heading to the small Tayto company to examine the product and to negotiate the rights to use the new technology. When eventually the Tayto company was sold, it made the owner and the small family group who had changed the face of potato chip manufacturing very wealthy. Companies worldwide sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique.
The Tayto innovation changed the whole nature of the potato chip, and led to the end of Smith's twist of salt. (Walkers revived the idea of "salt in a bag", following their takeover of Smith's (UK) in 1979, with their Salt 'n' Shake potato crisps.[6]) Later chip manufacturers added natural and artificial seasonings to potato chips, with varying degrees of success. A product that had had a large appeal to a limited market on the basis of one seasoning now had a degree of market penetration through vast numbers of seasonings. Various other seasonings of chips are sold in different locales, including the original "Cheese and Onion", produced by Tayto, which remains by far Ireland's biggest manufacturer of crisps.
The most popular dips for potato chips are sour cream and french onion dip.
Another type of potato chip, notably the Pringles and Lay's Stax brands, is made by extruding or pressing a dough made from ground potatoes into the patented potato chip shape before frying. This makes chips that are very uniform in size and shape, which allows them to be stacked and packaged in rigid tubes. In America, the official term for Pringles is "potato crisps", but they are rarely referred to as such. Conversely Pringles may be termed "potato chips" in Britain, to distinguish them from traditional "crisps".
An additional variant of potato chips exists in the form of "potato sticks", also called "shoestring potatoes" and in Great Britain "chipsticks". These are made as extremely thin (2–3 mm) versions of the popular French fry, but are fried in the manner of regular salted potato chips. A hickory smoke flavor version is popular in Canada, going by the name "Hickory Sticks". Potato sticks are typically packaged in rigid containers, although some manufacturers use flexible pouches, similar to potato chip bags. Potato sticks were originally packed in hermetically sealed steel cans. In the 1960s, manufacturers switched to the less expensive composite canister (similar to the Pringle's container). Reckitt Benckiser was a market leader in this category under the Durkee Potato Stix and French's Potato Sticks names, but exited the business in 2008.
A larger variant (approximately 1 cm thick) made with dehydrated potatoes is marketed as Andy Capp's Pub Fries, using the theme of a long running British comic strip, which are baked and come in a variety of flavors.
Some companies have also marketed baked potato chips as an alternative with lower fat content. Additionally, some varieties of fat-free chips have been made using artificial, and indigestible, fat substitutes. These became well-known in the media when an ingredient many contained, Olestra, was linked in some individuals to abdominal discomfort and loose stools.[13]
The success of crisp fried potato chips also gave birth to fried corn chips, with such brands as Fritos, CC's and Doritos dominating the market. "Swamp chips" are similarly made from a variety of root vegetables, such as parsnips, rutabagas and carrots. Japanese-style variants include extruded chips, like products made from rice or cassava. In South Indian snack cuisine, there is an item called vadam, which is a chip made of an extruded rice/sago base.
There are many other products which might be called "crisps" in Britain, but would not be classed as "potato chips" because they aren't made with potato and/or aren't chipped (for example, Wotsits).
Kettle-style chips (known as hand-cooked in the UK/Europe) are traditionally made by the "batch-style" process, where all chips are fried all at once at a low temperature profile, and continuously raked to prevent them from sticking together. There has been some development recently where kettle-style chips are able to be produced by a "continuous-style" process (like a long conveyor belt), creating the same old-fashioned texture and flavor of a real kettle-cooked chip.
Non-potato based chips also exist. Kumara (sweet potato) chips are eaten in Korea, New Zealand and Japan; parsnip, beetroot and carrot crisps are available in the United Kingdom. India is famous for a large number of localized 'chips shops', selling not only potato chips but also other varieties such as plantain chips, tapioca chips, yam chips and even carrot chips. Plantain chips, also known as chifles or tostones, are also sold in the Western Hemisphere from Florida to Chile. In the Philippines, banana chips can be found sold at local stores. In Kenya, chips are made even from arrowroot and casava. In the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia, a new variety of Pringles made from rice have been released and marketed as lower in fat than their potato counterparts. Recently, the Australian company Absolute Organic has also released chips made from beetroot.
In Kenya, there are crisps made from arrowroot, cassava, coconut, plantain.
Potato chips (also called crisps in the United Kingdom and Ireland) are thinly cut potatoes that have been baked or fried and lightly salted or seasoned. Some popular flavours of potato chips are: salt and vinegar, ketchup, sour cream and onion. They are one of the most important snack foods in Western nations.
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In the 1790s, Thomas Jefferson introduced thick french fries to America from France. However, a picky customer at a restaurant at the Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York, was making the chef, George Crum, angry by continually complaining that the fries were not thin enough.[1][2][3] Finally, George Crum became so impatient he decided to exaggerate. He sliced the potatoes so thinly they could not even be pierced with a fork. Then he soaked them in ice water for 30 minutes.[3] After he fried and salted them, he gave them to the customer - who, to his surprise, loved them. First named "Saratoga chips" in 1835, it later became well known as "potato chips".[4][3] George Crum later opened his own restaurant that served his special potato chips.[3]
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   | Taquitos.net (more than 900 reviews of potato chips) - Taquitos.net's Reviews of Potato Chips and Snacks |
| | Lay's website - Lays Potato Chips | Simply Made. Simply Good. (TM) |
 | Mike Sells Chipper Shipper Online Store - Mike Sells Chipper Shipper Online Store |
| | Joe 'Spud' Murphy - Joe 'Spud' Murphy - Telegraph |
| | BBC h2g2 - Smiths Salt 'n' Shake Crisps - BBC - h2g2 - Smiths Salt 'n' Shake Crisps |
| | BBC h2g2 Potato Crisps - A History - BBC - h2g2 - Potato Crisps - A History |
| | PotatoPro/Datamonitor - Savory Snacks: Global Industry Guide |
| | BMA Netherlands, one of the leading suppliers of potato chips production lines - BMA Nederland BV: Home |
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