Potato Chips
An Unlimited Amount of Chip Flavors
Potato chips have long been one of the most loved types of snack food. It's very hard to eat just one potato chip, as you are usually hooked and, before you know it, the bag is empty. Although potato chips may seem like a pretty simple type of snack, there are various ways of making them and quite a wide variety of flavors.
You can deep fry potato chips as well as bake them. There are many types of spices and salts that you can add to potato chips and many potato chip companies make different versions of flavored chips, for different regions of the country. This is done because tastes are a little different throughout the land, so a bag of barbecue flavor chips may be made differently and taste differently from region to region and from country to country.
Native American chef, George Crum invented potato chips in 1853, at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York. Rumor has it that a particularly fussy customer kept sending his French fries back to the kitchen because he said they were too thick. Crum finally had enough and decided to cut the potatoes as thin as he possibly could and to his amazement the fussy customer loved them. This is how Saratoga chips, later to be called potato chips, were born.
There are various flavors to choose from, such as barbecues, all dressed, bacon and hickory, ketchup, dill pickle, sour cream and onion, salt and vinegar, and of course regular. Not only are there different flavors of chips to choose from, but there are also different styles, such as potato chips with ruffles and ridges in them and different shaped potato chips. In addition to the cooking method of the potatoes and the seasonings added to the recipe, the main flavoring of the potato chips will come from the potatoes themselves. You definitely have to have good potatoes to have good tasting potato chips.
The potato chips industry hasn't changed too much over the years, but in 1969 Pringles potato chips were introduced. Pringles are made from potatoes that have been cooked, mashed, dehydrated and then reconstituted into a dough. Pringles are cut into a standard size and shape. They are then packaged in airtight canisters, which are meant to extend their shelf life.
Potato chips are usually eaten on their own, but you can eat them with assorted other snacks such as pretzels and nuts. You can of course, also buy or make various types of chip dips to dip them in.