potato chip
American Heritage Dictionary:
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potato chip
n.
A thin slice of potato fried in deep fat until crisp and then usually seasoned. Often used in the plural.
Gale's How Products Are Made:
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How is a potato chip made?
Background
Potato chips are thin slices of potato, fried quickly in oil and then salted.
According to snack food folklore, the potato chip was invented in 1853 by a chef named George Crum at a restaurant called Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Spring, New York. Angered when a customer, some sources say it was none other than Cornelius Vanderbilt, returned his french fried potatoes to the kitchen for being too thick, Crum sarcastically shaved them paper thin and sent the plate back out. The customer, whoever he was, and others around him, loved the thin potatoes. Crum soon opened his own restaurant across the lake and his policy of not taking reservations did not keep the customers from standing in line to taste his potato chips.
The popularity of potato chips quickly spread across the country, particularly in speakeasies, spawning a flurry of home-based companies. Van de Camp's Saratoga Chips opened in Los Angeles on January 6, 1915. In 1921, Earl Wise, a grocer, was stuck with an overstock of potatoes. He peeled them, sliced them with a cabbage cutter and then fried them according to his mother's recipe and packaged them in brown paper bags. Leonard Japp and George Gavora started Jays Foods in the early 1920s, selling potato chips, nuts, and pretzels to speakeasies from the back of a dilapidated truck.
The chips were commonly prepared in someone's kitchen and then delivered immediately to stores and restaurants, or sold on the street. Shelf-life was virtually nil. Two innovations paved the way for mass production. In 1925, the automatic potato-peeling machine was invented. A year later, several employees at Laura Scudder's potato chip company ironed sheets of waxed paper into bags. The chips were hand-packed into the bags, which were then ironed shut.
Potato chips received a further boost when the U.S. government declared them an essential food in 1942, allowing factories to remain open during World War II. In many cases, potato chips were the only ready-to-eat vegetables available. After the war, it was commonplace to serve chips with dips; French onion soup mix stirred into sour cream was a perennial favorite. Television also contributed to the chip's popularity as Americans brought snacks with them when they settled before their television sets each night.
In 1969, General Mills and Proctor & Gamble introduced fabricated potato chips, Chipos and Pringles®, respectively. They were made from potatoes that had been cooked, mashed, dehydrated, reconstituted into dough, and cut into uniform pieces. They further differed from previous chips in that they were packaged into breakproof, oxygen-free canisters. The Potato Chip Institute (now the Snack Food Association) filed suit to prevent General Mills and Proctor & Gamble from calling their products chips. Although the suit was dismissed, the USDA did stipulate that the new variety must be labeled as "potato chips made from dried potatoes." Although still on the market, fabricated chips have never achieved the popularity of the original.
Today, potato chips are the most popular snack in the United States. According to the Snack Food Association, potato chips constitute 40% of snack food consumption, beating out pretzels and popcorn in spite of the fact that hardly anyone thinks potato chips are nutritious. Nonetheless, the major challenge faced by manufacturers in the 1990s was to develop a tasty low-fat potato chip.
Raw Materials
Even though Earl Wise started his business with old potatoes, today's product is made from farm-fresh potatoes delivered daily to manufacturing plants. The sources vary from season to season. In April and May, potatoes come from Florida; June, July and August bring potatoes from North Carolina and Virginia; in the autumn months, the Dakotas supply the majority of potatoes; during the winter, potato chip manufacturers depend on their stored supplies of potatoes. Stored potatoes are kept at a constant temperature, between 40-45°F (4.4-7.2°C), until several weeks before they are to be used. They are then moved to a reconditioning room that is heated to 70-75°F (21.1-23.9°C). Size and type are important in potato selection. White potatoes that are larger than a golf ball, but smaller than a baseball, are the best. It takes 100 lb (45.4 kg) of raw potatoes to produce 25 lb (11.3 kg) of chips.
The potatoes are fried in either corn oil, cottonseed oil, or a blend of vegetable oils. An antioxidizing agent is added to the oil to prevent rancidity. To further insure purification, the oil is passed through a filtration system daily. Salt and other flavoring ingredients, such as powdered sour cream and onion and barbecue flavor, are purchased from outside sources. Flake salt is used rather than crystal salt. Some manufacturers treat the potatoes with chemicals such as phosphoric acid, citric acid, hydrochloric acid, or calcium chloride to reduce the sugar level, and thus improve the product's color. The bags are designed and printed by the individual potato chip manufacturer. They are stored on rolls and brought to the assembly line as necessary.
The Manufacturing
Process
- When the potatoes arrive at the plant, they are examined and tasted for quality. A half dozen or so buckets are randomly filled. Some are punched with holes in their cores so that they can be tracked through the cooking process. The potatoes are examined for green edges and blemishes. The pile of defective potatoes is weighed; if the weight exceeds a company's preset allowance, the entire truckload can be rejected.
- The potatoes move along a conveyer belt to the various stages of manufacturing. The conveyer belts are powered by gentle vibrations to keep breakage to a minimum.
Destoning and peeling
- The potatoes are loaded into a vertical helical screw conveyer which allows stones to fall to the bottom and pushes the potatoes up to a conveyer belt to the automatic peeling machine. After they have been peeled, the potatoes are washed with cold water.
Slicing
- The potatoes pass through a revolving impaler/presser that cuts them into paper-thin slices, between 0.066-0.072 in (1.7-1.85 mm) in thickness. Straight blades produce regular chips while rippled blades produce ridged potato chips.
- The slices fall into a second cold-water wash that removes the starch released when the potatoes are cut. Some manufacturers, who market their chips as natural, do not wash the starch off the potatoes.
Color treatment
- If the potatoes need to be chemically treated to enhance their color, it is done at this stage. The potato slices are immersed in a solution that has been adjusted for pH, hardness, and mineral content.
Frying and salting
- The slices pass under air jets that remove excess water as they flow into 40-75 ft (12.2-23 m) troughs filled with oil. The oil temperature is kept at 350-375°F (176.6-190.5°C). Paddles gently push the slices along. As the slices tumble, salt is sprinkled from receptacles positioned above the trough at the rate of about 1.75 lb (0.79 kg) of salt to each 100 lb (45.4 kg) of chips.
- Potato chips that are to be flavored pass through a drum filled with the desired powdered seasonings.
Cooling and sorting
- At the end of the trough, a wire mesh belt pulls out the hot chips. As the chips move along the mesh conveyer belt, excess oil is drained off and the chips begin to cool. They then move under an optical sorter that picks out any burnt slices and removes them with puffs of air.
Packaging
- The chips are conveyed to a packaging machine with a scale. As the pre-set weight of chips is measured, a metal detector checks the chips once more for any foreign matter such as metal pieces that could have come with the potatoes or been picked up in the frying process.
- The bags flow down from a roll. A central processing unit (CPU) code on the bag tells the machine how many chips should be released into the bag. As the bag forms, (heat seals the top of the filled bag and seals the bottom of the next bag simultaneously) gates open and allow the proper amount of chips to fall into the bag.
- The filling process must be accomplished without letting an overabundance of air into the bag, while also preventing the chips from breaking. Many manufacturers use nitrogen to fill the space in the bags. The sealed bags are conveyed to a collator and hand-packed into cartons.
- Some companies pack potato chips in I O cans of various sizes. The chips flow down a chute into the cans. Workers weigh each can, make any necessary adjustments, and attach a top to the can.
Quality Control
Taste samples are made from each batch throughout the manufacturing process, usually at a rate of once per hour. The tasters check the chips for salt, seasoning, moisture, color, and overall flavor. Color is compared to charts that show acceptable chip colors.
Preventing breakage is a primary goal for potato chip manufacturers. Companies have installed safeguards at various points in the manufacturing process to decrease the chances for breakage. The heights that chips fall from conveyer belts to fryers have been decreased. Plastic conveyer belts have been replaced with wide mesh stainless steel belts. These allow only the larger chips to travel to the fryers and the smaller potato slivers to fall through the mesh.
Byproducts/Waste
Rejected potatoes and peelings are sent to farms to be used as animal feed. The starch that is removed in the rinsing process is sold to a starch processor.
The Future
Potato chips show no sign of declining in popularity. However, the public's increased demand for low-fat foods has put manufacturers on a fast track to produce a reduced-calorie chip that pleases the palate as well. In the late 1990s, Proctor and Gamble introduced olestra, a fat substitute that was being test-marketed in a variety of products, including potato chips.
Food technicians are using computer programs to design a crunchier chip. Upper- and lower-wave forms are fed into the computer at varying amplitudes, frequencies, and phases. The computer then spits out the corresponding models. Researchers are also working on genetically engineered potatoes with less sugar content since it is the sugar that produces brown spots on chips.
Where to Learn More
Books
Trager, James. The Food Chronology. Henry Holt, 1995.
Other
"Potato Chips," Jays Foods, Chicago, IL 60628. 773/731-8400.
[Article by: Mary F. McNulty]
Barron's Food Lover's Companion:
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potato chips
Because these deep-fried, thinly sliced potatoes were invented by the chef of a Saratoga Springs, New York, hotel in the mid-19th-century, they're also called Saratoga chips. These all-American favorites come commercially in a wide selection of sizes, cuts (ripple and flat), thicknesses, and flavors such as chive, barbecue and nacho. Most commercial potato chips contain preservatives; those labeled "natural" usually do not. Some are salted while others are labeled "low-salt"; though most potato chips are skinless, others do include the flavorful skin. There are even chips made from mashed potatoes formed into perfect rounds and packed into crushproof cardboard cylinders. All potato chips should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. The storage time depends on whether or not they contain preservatives and how old they were when purchased. Some chips have a freshness date stamped on the package.
Houghton Mifflin Word Origins:
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potato chip
Origin: 1878
A quarter century before it got its current name, what we now know as the potato chip was invented, supposedly by an American Indian chef at Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga, New York. By slicing potatoes to utmost thinness before frying them, we are told, Chef George Crum transformed a humble native American tuber into the quintessential American snack. His gourmet creations were copied throughout the resort town, and they came to be known as Saratoga chips. An English visitor wrote in his diary in 1865, "These potatoes are the specialité of the place--the 'maids of honour,' the whitebait of Saratoga.... They are eaten with game, they are eaten with sherry-cobblers, and they are eaten with ice-creams."
The appeal of the chips spread far beyond Saratoga, and after a while they lost the name of their birthplace in favor of a generic designation. So The American Home Cook Book of 1878, by "Ladies of Detroit and Other Cities," simply stated, "Put around potato chips."
For many years after their invention, potato chips remained a delicacy. Whether in a restaurant or at home, they had to be prepared fresh in the kitchen. Finally, however, with the invention of the mechanical potato peeler at the end of the nineteenth century and the development of cellophane packaging in the 1920s, potato chips became the snack food we know today, available in every grocery store and beyond.
The single word chips has been understood to mean potato chips, as in chips and dip, until recently, when potato chips have been rivalled in popularity by corn-based tortilla chips (1977). The tortilla chip had a predecessor in the corn chip, developed in the 1930s from a recipe by a street vendor of Mexican food in San Antonio, Texas.
Chips are known in England, too, but they are not the same thing. To this day the English use chips for what we know as French fries (1947). Our thin American product is known in England as the potato crisp.
Nutritional Values:
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The Nutritional Value for: potato chips
| Quantity | Energy (calories) |
Carbohydrates (grams) |
Protein (grams) |
Cholesterol (milligrams) |
Weight (grams) |
Fat (grams) |
Saturated Fat (grams) |
| 10 chips | 105 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 7 | 1.8 |
Sign Language Videos:
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potato chips
sign description: The bent V fingers are "stabbed" into the back of the opposite fist, followed by the C hand hitting on the tips of the fingers.
Wiley Dictionary of Flavors:
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Potato Chip
A thin slice of potato, which is then fried, yielding a flavor that is a combination of Maillard ingredients, Strecker aldehydes (methional), and fried components (unsaturated aldehydes and acids). It is the legend that a customer complained that the fried potatoes served were too thick, so a chef produced a paper-thin fried potato and thus created the chip. See Fried (Oil) Flavor, Free Radicals.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'potato chip'
- Prepared Dishes - potato chip: thin slice of potato fried crisp and usu. salted
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Potato chip
"Crisp" redirects here. For other uses, see Crisp (disambiguation).
 Potato chips |
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Saratoga Springs, New York, United States |
| Details | |
| Course | Snack, side dish |
| Serving temperature | Room temperature |
Potato chips (known as crisps in British English and Hiberno-English; as chips in American, Australian New Zealand, Canadian, Singapore, South African, Jamaican English and as either chips or wafers in Indian English) are thin slices of potato that are deep fried or baked. Potato chips are commonly served as an appetizer, side dish, or snack. The basic chips are cooked and salted; additional varieties are manufactured using various flavorings and ingredients including seasonings, herbs, spices, cheeses, and artificial additives.
Crisps, however, refer to many different types of snack products in the UK and Ireland, some made from potato, but may also be made from maize and tapioca. An example of these kinds of crisps is Monster Munch.[1]
Potato chips are a predominant part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries and numerous other Western nations. The global potato chip 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).[2]
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Contents
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History
According to a traditional story, the original potato chip recipe was created in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 24, 1853. Agitated by a patron repeatedly sending his fried potatoes back because they were too thick, soggy and bland, resort hotel chef, George Crum, decided to slice the potatoes as thin as possible, frying them until crisp and seasoning them with extra salt. Contrary to Crum's expectation, the patron (sometimes identified as Cornelius Vanderbilt) loved the new chips[3] and they soon became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name "Saratoga Chips".[4] Alternative explanations of the provenance of potato chips date them to recipes in Shilling Cookery for the People by Alexis Soyer (1845) or Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife (1824).
In the 20th century, potato chips spread beyond chef-cooked restaurant fare and began to be mass produced for home consumption. The Dayton, Ohio-based Mike-sell's Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, calls itself the "oldest potato chip company in the United States".[5] New England-based Tri-Sum Potato Chips, originally founded in 1908 as the Leominster Potato Chip Company, in Leominster, Massachusetts claim to be America's first potato chip manufacturer.[6] Chips sold in markets were usually sold in tins or scooped out of storefront glass bins and delivered by horse and wagon. The early potato chip bag was wax paper with the ends ironed or stapled together. At first, potato chips were packaged in barrels or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale and crumbled. Laura Scudder,[7] an entrepreneur in Monterey Park, California started having her workers take home sheets of wax paper to iron into the form of bags, which were filled with chips at her factory the next day. This pioneering method reduced crumbling and kept the chips fresh and crisp longer. This innovation, along with the invention of cellophane, allowed potato chips to become a mass market product. Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with nitrogen gas blown in prior to sealing to lengthen shelf life, and provide protection against crushing.[8]
Flavored chips
In an idea originated by the Smiths Potato Crisps Company Ltd, formed in 1920,[9] 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),[10] the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed a technology to add seasoning during manufacture in the 1950s. After some trial and error, Murphy and his employee, Seamus Burke,[11] 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 traveling to the small Tayto company in Ireland to examine the product and to negotiate the rights to use the new technology. Companies worldwide sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique. The sale of the Tayto company made the owner and the small family group, who had changed the face of potato chip manufacturing, very wealthy.
The Tayto's innovation changed the entire 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.[12]) 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.
Nomenclature
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.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland crisps are potato chips while chips refer to thick strips similar to french fries (as in "fish and chips") and served hot. In Australia, some parts of South Africa, the south of New Zealand, India, the general West Indies especially in Barbados, both forms of potato product are simply known as "chips", as are the larger "home-style" potato crisps. In the north of New Zealand they are known as "chippies" but are marketed as "chips" throughout the country. Sometimes the distinction is made between "hot chips" (fried potatoes) and "potato chips" in Australia and New Zealand. In Bangladesh, they are generally known as chip or chips, and much less as crisps (pronounced "kirisp") and locally Álu Bhaja.
Health concerns
Potato chips were originally fried and seasoned without concern for trans fats, sodium, sugar, or other nutrient levels. As nutritional intake guidelines were created in various countries and the nutrition facts label became commonplace, consumers, advocacy groups, and health organizations have focused on the nutritional value of junk foods, including potato chips.[13]
A recent long term study associates potato chip consumption as most important contributor to weight change, before potatoes and soft drinks.[14]
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Some potato chip companies have responded to the criticism, both informal and legal, by investing in research and development to modify existing recipes and create health-conscious products. Kettle Foods was founded in 1978 and currently sells only trans fat-free products, including potato chips. PepsiCo research shows that approximately 80% of salt on chips is not sensed by the tongue before being swallowed. Frito-Lay spent $414 million in 2009 on product development, including development of salt crystals that would reduce the salt content of Lay's potato chips without adversely affecting flavor.[13]
The starch in potato chips causes tooth erosion. [15][citation needed]
A big concern about the health content of crisps is that, owing to the fact that they are often made with salt, they may contain substantial levels of sodium. However, it has been claimed that crisps may actually contain less sodium/salt than the equivalent weight in corn flakes. The excessive consumption of crisps will cause you to become obese which produces a rise in blood pressure. It has been pointed out that crisp contain less salt than Golden Graham cereals (SOURCE: http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/news/surveys/2004/cereals/index.html). It should also be noted that crisps may contain significant levels of potassium.
Examples of regional varieties
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- In Australia, popular flavors include plain (salted), roast chicken, barbecue, and salt & vinegar. In recent years, other flavors have become popular, including lime and pepper, chili, sour cream & chives, sweet chilli sauce & sour cream, honey soy chicken and Caesar salad. Until recently, a doner kebab flavor was manufactured by Arnott's.[citation needed]
- In Austria, garlic flavored potato chips are available.
- In Bulgaria, plain salted, paprika, sour cream and onion, and cheese and hot chili are popular flavors. Barbecue and ketchup flavored chips are also available.
- In Canada, seasonings include dill pickle, ketchup, barbecue, all dressed, salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion. In Toronto and Vancouver, Lay's offers wasabi chips.[16]
- In China, Lay's has introduced potato chips flavored in Chinese cuisine, world cuisine, and flavors such as cucumber.
- In Colombia, the five main flavors of chips are natural (ready salted), barbecue, chicken, mayonnaise and Limón.
- In Egypt, Chipsy (a formerly-independent firm bought out by Lay's in the 2000s) is the most popular brand of potato chips. It has some flavors inspired by the local cuisine, such as kebab and stuffed vine leaves, although cosmopolitan flavors such as salt and vinegar are also popular. The most popular flavor is cheese, based on Rumi cheese.
- In Finland, the market leader in potato chips business is Taffel (known in Denmark and Norway as KiMs and marketed in Sweden under the name OLW), an Åland company, with popular cheese flavored "Juusto Snacks", salt flavored "Chips", sour cream and onion flavored "Broadway", and barbecue flavored "Grill Chips", in general sour cream & onion- and barbecue -flavored potato chips are among the most popular flavors regardless of the manufacturer, popular brands include, in addition to domestic Taffel, few foreign brands such as Estrella and Pringles.
- In Germany, the most common flavor is paprika. More exotic varieties are also beginning to appear, including salt & vinegar and Asian flavors. The most recent development is the Salt & Pepper-flavor and product lines from organic farming. The legendary beer flavored chips seem to be more of a myth, the most recent general availability of beer flavored chips was a soccer world cup 2006 special edition by Lorenz Snack-World. The dominating brands are Chio Chips and funny frisch, both manufactured by Intersnack, Crunchips, manufactured by Lorenz Snack-World, and Pringles. Other foreign brands like Lay's or Kettle are available sporadically, but do not usually play a major role.
- In Greece, oregano flavored chips are very popular.
- In Hong Kong, the two prominent potato chips are the spicy "Ethnican" variety by Calbee,[17] and barbecue by Jack'n Jill. Lay's are also popular in Hong Kong. (With the most popular being BBQ and sour cream and onion.)
- In India and Pakistan, there are a number of flavored varieties both in locally made and multi-national brands, such as Lay's. Some flavors are tomato, pudina (mint), masala, coriander, salt and pepper, and red chili powder. The most popular chip varieties are potato, tapioca, and plantain (yellow or green, each with its own distinct taste). A similar snack made from potato and sago starch is known as far-far in India.
- In Indonesia, barbecue, corn, and roast chicken are the favorites. Another variety of chips are cassava chips.
- In Ireland, the common varieties of crisps are similar to those sold in the UK. However in Ireland, the word Tayto is synonymous with crisps after the Tayto brand and can be used to describe all varieties of crisp, including those not produced by Tayto. Owing to the dominance of Tayto in the Irish market, the word has become a genericized trademark. Walkers crisps were launched there several years ago, but have failed to dominate the market. Hunky Dorys and King crisps are other popular Irish brands.
- In Japan, flavors include nori & salt, consommé, wasabi, soy sauce & butter, garlic, ume, barbecue, pizza, mayonnaise, and black pepper. Chili, scallop with butter, teriyaki, takoyaki and yakitori flavored chips are also available. Major manufacturers are Calbee,[18] Koikeya[19] and Yamayoshi.
- In Mexico, many flavors are spicy. Popular flavors are salt, lime, habanero, 'Chile y Limón' and cheese.
- In some Middle Eastern countries,[clarification needed] many popular American flavors and chicken-flavored chips are available. In others, salt and salt and pepper varieties are the most popular.
- In the Netherlands, the market is dominated by Lay's; they offer many flavors, such as: natural (salted), paprika, bolognese (Italian herbs and tomato), barbecued ham, cheese & onion, Mexican herbs, Heinz tomato ketchup, chili, spareribs, Mediterranean herbs, Thai sweet chili, Oriental spices, pepper & cream, chicken & thyme, and spices & lime. Natural (salted) and paprika crisps are the most popular.
- In New Zealand, the most popular varieties of potato chips are ready salted, salt n' vinegar and chicken. In 2009, Bluebird Foods Limited released a unique range of chips made of classic New Zealand flavors such as 'Meat Pie and Ketchup' and 'Reduced Cream and Onion Soup Dip 'Sunday Roast'. The range is named 'Kiwi As'.
- In Norway, most chips are flavored with salt, salt and pepper or paprika. More exotic flavors like mushroom and horseradish are also available. Major brands include KiMs, Maarud and Sørlandschips.
- In Philippines, favorites include cheese, barbecue, and sour cream and onion.
- In Russia, popular flavors are plain (salted), onion, paprika, black pepper, and sour cream, more unusual varieties are bacon, shashlik, crab, and caviar. Both Lay's and Pringles brands are widespread. Russian companies like Perekrestok also manufacture their own chips.
- In Singapore, popular brands are barbecue flavored Jack and Jill Potato Chips, Sour Cream and Onion Lays, Chipster and the brand Lay's Kettle Cooked Chips.
- In Serbia, popular potato chips are plain (salted), pizza, grill and ketchup flavored. The Chipsy company holds most of the Serbian potato chip market.
- South Africa has many potato chip flavors, including "fruit chutney", "biltong" (beef jerky), "sausage", "Worcestershire sauce", "peri peri" (Mozambican/Portuguese hot sauce flavor) and tomato sauce (ketchup flavor) among many others.
- In Spain, the most popular flavors are plain (fried with olive oil and salted), and ham.
- In Sweden, the two dominant companies are Estrella (owned by Kraft Foods) and OLW. The most popular flavors are salted, grill (onion flavored), sour cream & onion, and dill. Exotic flavors include sour cream & bearnaise and hot sweet chili. Chips made of unpeeled potatoes, called lantchips, are also common. Another common chips-brand is Pringles.
- The market in the United Kingdom is dominated by Walkers (a regional brand of Lay's) which is known for its wide variety of crisps. The three main flavors are ready salted, cheese & onion, and salt & vinegar; however, other examples are prawn cocktail, Worcestershire sauce (known by Walkers as Worcester Sauce), roast chicken, steak & onion, smoky bacon, lamb & mint, ham & mustard, barbecue, BBQ rib, tomato ketchup, sausage & ketchup, pickled onion, Branston Pickle, and Marmite. More exotic flavors are Thai sweet chili, roast pork & creamy mustard sauce, lime and Thai spices, chicken with Italian herbs, sea salt and cracked black pepper, turkey & bacon, caramelized onion & sweet balsamic vinegar, stilton & cranberry, mango chili, and special flavors such as American Cheeseburger and English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pud.[20] Kettle Foods Ltd's range of thick-cut crunchy crisps include gourmet flavors: Mexican Limes with a hint of Chilli, Salsa with Mesquite, Buffalo Mozzarella Tomato and Basil, Mature Cheddar with Adnams Broadside Beer, Soulmate Cheeses and Onion, and other previously listed flavors. Most seasonings contain only vegetarian ingredients, although some recent seasonings such as lamb & mint sauce contain meat extracts. In the early 1980s, Hedgehog brand flavored crisps were widely on sale and received much publicity. McCoys Crisps are also popular in the UK. In Northern Ireland Tayto (NI) Ltd. dominate the market.[citation needed] This company is entirely unrelated to the Tayto company in Ireland. In the north of England, Seabrook Potato Crisps are popular, but they are much less common in the south.
- In the United States, popular potato chips flavors include original (plain or with salt), sour cream and onion, barbecue, ranch dressing, salt and vinegar, and cheddar and sour cream. Stores in regions with a significant Hispanic population sell lime flavored chips using the Mexican name, limón.[21] In the general timeframe of 2010 to 2012, stores in the United States have been featuring potato chips labeled on the package as "Kettle Cooked."
Similar foods
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 desired 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". 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 vending machine 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. Walkers make a similar product called "Chipsticks" which are Salt and Vinegar flavored. The Ready Salted flavor had been discontinued.
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.[22]
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 HappLa in Kannada/vadam in Tamil, which is a chip made of an extruded rice/sago or multigrain base that has been around for many centuries.
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, Quavers, Skips, Hula Hoops and Monster Munch).
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 Canada 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, Finland 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.
Gallery of production
- The process of making homemade chips
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Potato is sliced by rotating the blade
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Long and narrow slices are produced
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The potato slices are fried in hot oil
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Frying takes several minutes
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The finished product
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Notes
- ^ "Walkers Crisps". Pepsico. http://www.pepsico.co.uk/walkers-crisps. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ "PotatoPro/Datamonitor". Potatopro.com. http://www.potatopro.com/Pr/E-shot/Savory%20Snacks%20Global%20Industry%20Guide.aspx. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "How potato chip is made - used, processing, product, machine, Raw Materials, The Manufacturing Process, Quality Control, Byproducts/Waste, The Future". Madehow.com. 1915-01-06. http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Potato-Chip.html. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ Civil War Recipes and Food History - The Potato During the Civil War
- ^ "Mike Sells Chipper Shipper Online Store". Mike-sells.com. http://www.mike-sells.com/about/. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "Potato Chips". Atlas of Popular Culture in the Northeastern US. http://www.geography.ccsu.edu/harmonj/atlas/potchips.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "The History and Origin of Potato Chips". Students.cup.edu. http://students.cup.edu/mof8893/food/history.html. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ "BBC h2g2 Potato Crisps - A History". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A16455053. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "Joe 'Spud' Murphy". Daily Telegraph. 2001-11-22. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/05/db02.xml. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
- ^ "Joe 'Spud' Murphy". Telegraph. 2001-11-05. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1361491/Joe-Spud-Murphy.html. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ "BBC h2g2 - Smiths Salt 'n' Shake Crisps". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A471377. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ a b McKay, Betsy (2010-03-22). "PepsiCo Develops 'Designer Salt' to Chip Away at Sodium Intake". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704534904575131602283791566.html. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
- ^ Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., Dr.P.H. et al. (2011-06-23). "Changes in Diet and Lifestyle and Long-Term Weight Gain in Women and Men". New England Magazine. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1014296. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
- ^ "NHS tooth decay prevention". http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Dental-decay/Pages/Prevention.aspx. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
- ^ "Lay's website". http://www.lays.ca/. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
- ^ "Calbee Four Seas Co. Ltd.". http://www.calbee.com.hk/html/tch/home/index.jsp. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
- ^ "Calbee カルビー株式会社". Calbee.co.jp. http://www.calbee.co.jp/index.php. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "株式会社湖池屋｜総合スナックメーカーのコイケヤ". Koikeya.co.jp. http://koikeya.co.jp/. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ "Walkers Flavour Cup". http://www.walkers.co.uk/flavourcup/faqs.html#/help/faqs. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
- ^ "LAY'S". Frito-Lay. http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/lays.html. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ "NIDDK...WIN Notes". Win.niddk.nih.gov. 1998-02-21. http://win.niddk.nih.gov/notes/summer98/artcl9.html. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
References
- Banham, Rayner (1977) "The Crisp at the Crossroads", in P. Barker (ed) Arts in Society. London: Fontana.
- Jones, Charlotte Foltz (1991). Mistakes That Worked. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26246-9. – Origins of potato chips.
External links
Media related to Potato chips at Wikimedia Commons
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Look up potato chip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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