Do you like to eat potato chips? Did you know that March 14th is National Potato Chip Day in North America?
While you are enjoying the opportunity, please come and listen to the story of the birth and evolution of potato chips.
Once upon a time, potato chips and instant noodles all came with "salt packs", so you could adjust the saltiness of the DIY flavor; and Pringles' tube-packed potato chips were not strictly speaking potato chips!
Potato chips now dominate the world and are sold in almost every country, with ever-changing flavors and types. How did this potato-based snack come about?
Back in 1853, at a small town hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, one day, a particularly picky local tyrant came and complained repeatedly that the potato chips for dinner were too thick and asked the chef to redo it.
George Crum, the self-respecting chef at the time, was so angry that he deliberately cut the potato slices as thin as paper, and fry them in a frying pan to make a fried potato slice so thin that a fork could not be lifted.
The original intention was to force the local tyrant to put down his fork. Eating with hands (at that time, gentlemen with a certain status would not eat with their hands, they thought it was a loss of grace), but they were praised by local tyrants. Crum simply opened his own restaurant and sold this snack called Saratoga Chips, which is how potato chips were accidentally invented.
The natural enemy of potato chips is moisture, so moisture protection is very important. The food airtight packaging that people have been using now was invented to prevent moisture and keep food fresh. Filling the sealed bag of potato chips with nitrogen can not only play a buffering role but also make the potato chips not easy to be crushed. So everyone should stop complaining, there is a reason why a large bag of potato chips only has half a small bag after opening.
Potato chips have dominated the snack market for a long time, and almost everyone has eaten them.
These brands represent the oldest branches of the potato chip empire, dating back more than 100 years.
1. White Potato Chips
Wise Foods was founded 100 years ago and, as of 2021, is located in Berwick, Pennsylvania, USA. Wise came up with the idea when he saw a lot of potatoes go to waste while helping at his parent's restaurant. He started frying the potatoes he couldn't finish and then sold them to customers bag by bag, earning a lot of money again. Wise discovered from his parents' restaurant that the chips they were selling were greasy and left many unsightly spots on plain paper bags, so he invented wax paper bags for food transport.
2. Woods Crisps
Woods Potato Chips was established in 1921 as Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in English and was originally valued at about $300. William and Serry Woods handcrafted pickled and fried potatoes then delivered them to local grocery stores in Hanover and Baltimore.
3. Smith Chips
For over 100 years, Smith's Chips have actually been known for its "chips." The business's original product was salted dough sold in paper bags in London. Before 2003, Smith referred to their snacks as "chips," a corporate term for mainstream snack food-producing countries in the UK and US. This brand of potato chips is often advertised in movies.
4. Gripaldi Potato Chips
At the time, the snack was selling for a penny per bag (about 112 grams) at retailers in Cincinnati. Since 1959, the company has been making potato chips, and it is this company that invented the barbecue and salt and pepper potato chips that we see today.
There are many types of potato chips. Depending on the manufacturing method, there are the following:
Regular potato chips
Hand made slices
Wavy thick cut
Potato Flour Shaped Fried Potato Chips
You can also make simple potato chips at home. Wash the potatoes, peel them into slices, soak them in water for 10 minutes, and wash off the surface starch, so that it is neither easy to change color nor sticky. Take a plate and grease it with oil. Spread the potato chips flat on the plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in the microwave for 3 minutes, if not good, add another half or a minute until the potato chips are crisp. This is how easy potato chips are made.
