The Fake (and real) History of Potato Chips
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- čas přidán 1. 01. 2024
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose
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Fish & Chips: By Matthias Meckel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
#tastinghistory #potatochips
Happy 2024! Welcome back food history lovers, young and old. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE and leave me a comment of what other historic dishes you'd like me to explore. And check out my new site, www.tastinghistory.com/, feedback appreciated.
Happy new years! Love your videos when I'm eating it's always your videos that are go to
Happy New Year!
But you didn't link to the book you recommended! Please put it in the description or something!
Hey, Max my mom used to make 2 things I love and miss Brombovie Kenedliki ( plum dumplings } I think it's Czch or Austrian and Bucktah { Gods Bread } it's like a poppy seed roll only with a nut paste.
@@kidagirl99 there’s a link in the second line: lnk.to/Xkg1CdFB
Can you do the original nachos - which ARE authentic Mexican cuisine btw, they were invented in Piedras Negras, Mexico
As someone who lived in Saratoga Springs for many, many, many years, I can tell that this is going to get under the skin of many a local. And I'm all here for it.
Uhoh...
@@TastingHistory🎉🎉🎉🎉
Fellow past Saratogian here as well, and they absolutely need a proper kick to the proverbial teeth for their 19th century smugness that still exists to this day!
Now all they have are the springs
@@black_rabbit_0f_inle805 And the race course, but like honestly, who TRULY like that?
i like how even the apocryphal story of how chips were """invented""" in Saratoga has a customer asking the chef to recreate a dish that already existed...
Fr
Every version of the story I've ever heard just had the customer complaining that the potatoes weren't crisp enough. Nothing about "recreating" anything
The chips aren't supposed to be the recreation the guy was after; they're the result of comically overshooting the "sliced thinner" request. .......Like, it doesn't matter, since it didn't happen, but still.
Printing press was invented in the 1500's but it took a couple centuries for cookbooks and distribution channels to become available. So, figure that someone invented something really close to what we call "Potato Chips" long before that but did not have way to print/distribute the recipe.
@@SunriseLAWThat’s a bit of a historical myth too. Gutenburg’s invention in the 1400s wasn’t the Printing Press, per se, only one specifically featuring Movable Type, which allowed the text being printed to be changed without too much effort.
Printmaking using mechanical pressure to press a reusable inked plate to a series/edition of sheets paper (a printing press) had already existed for quite some time in a few parts of the world. Gutenberg’s contribution was the “movable type” part.
Former Frito-Lay QA tech here. Thank you for briefly explaining the purpose of air-fill. I knew some of the lab techs who spent hours counting broken chips to determine the amount of air-fill needed to deliver the most acceptable amount of breakage. It was tedious work.
Chip dust is the most delicious part.
@@DIEGhostfish True until you open the pack and half of them is already dust.
We salute you 🫡 I know people like to complain about half empty bags but I'd rather they be half empty than all crumbs! I work in a receiving department and I've seen how rough the delivery process can be on goods lol.
Sounds like a military punishment. More logical to do a pre and post count of whole chips. Big duh!
What's the breakage method? Dropping them from the top shelf of vending m.achi e?
I worked in Reseach and Development, first for Procter and Gamble and then for Frito Lay. I did a lot of work on Potato Chips both at P&G and Frito Lay.
The slice thickness of potato chips made from freshly sliced potatoes is critical to the quality of the finished product.
If you slice them too thin the oil will penetrate completely through the slice from both sides and the chip will be oil-soaked and unpleasant to eat.
If you slice them thicker than oil will only penetrate to a certain depth on each side and the center of the chips will consist of dehydrated but not fried potato. The dehydrated potato tends to be the remnants of potato cells as globules of dried starch. There is no oil in this layer. This layer is also very crunchy, even hard. It makes eating a lot of thick chips wear on the mouth even to the point of abrading the gums.
Fried potato is an oily matrix containing filaments of starch that were created when the cell was ruptured during frying, the starch was first hydrated in-situ and then dehydrated in strands as frying continued. The reducing sugars in the potato cells were free to react with the potato protein to produce the wonderful Maillard reactants that make potato chips and french fries so popular. The potato filaments are very crispy and fracture easily with a pleasant snap when eaten.
This means that the ideal thickness is a compromise in flavor and mouth feel which is thick enough to not be oil soaked but thin enough to not contain much dehydrated but unfried potato cells in the core. It is a flat cut, not a wavy or ruffled cut.
The oil in a finished potato chip is very easily oxidized and the starch filaments are very hygroscopic. Keeping the chip fresh requires both packaging in nitrogen and having very high barrier packaging films. Potato chip cans were used by several companies (Charles Chips) but in the late 1980s packaging films were developed which were both high barriers for oxygen and humidity and economical to produce.
For these reasons, thin flat potato chips have the highest share of the potato chip market not to take away from the other important variants such as kettle chips, ruffled chips, or stacked chips.
Very interesting, thank you!
My god. I never in my life thought I'd see such a captivating description of potato mastication.
In the early 1960s the firm Lays/Smiths, probably inspired by allready up and coming basic technology in the field, commissioned the development of a more efficient way of adding seasoning/flavor, specifically paprika powder, to potatoe chips/crisps on an industrial scale, rather than adding little bags of sticky, lumpy powder to the package, or the earlier machinery someone mentioned in the comments. The clever Dutch (yes) guy who eventually invented/designed the fully automated system (elements of which are still used today by chips/crisps factories worldwide, over 60 years later) to evenly dispense the yummy dusty stuff was my beloved stepfather, Piet Van Lienen, who passed away at the age of 90 this Christmas. The 'paprikapowdershootingmachine' story has for decades been an amusing anecdote in my family and I got to tell it to one of his grandkids at his funeral. So this episode is extra special to me!
woow
That is really cool. I love the irony of a Dutch guy (Old Dutch) inventing/designing the system for Lays. RIP to your stepfather.
Lovely story. Keep it alive and he'll never die. May he rest in peace.
That has to be mind blowing….to have at least invented a process that a good portion of the entire world has seen the results of.
Rust zacht
Most efficient way I came up with for fries was putting them into a big bowl lined with paper towels, adding dry seasoning, put another paper towel over that without pressing down, put a lid on the bowl & shake violently.
I have one small correction for your history segment: potato chip bags aren't filled with air. They're filled with a relatively inert gas, usually pure nitrogen. This is because, in addition to providing cushioning to reduce breakage, displacing all the oxygen before sealing the bag also prevents the chips from oxidizing, letting them last even longer on the shelf without browning until the bag is opened.
One could argue that nitrogen is air.
so colloquially; air
@@siophecles Air typically refers to the mixture of Earth's atmosphere in these sorts of contexts. Sure, it's ~78% nitrogen, but it's also ~21% oxygen.
@@jojivlogs_4255 I guess? I've never heard anyone call nitrogen "air," though, in addition to that just... not being accurate.
@@siophecles Only in the way you "could" argue that water is just hydrogen and rust is just iron or just oxygen 😁
One of my favorite ways to make a crispy potato snack is to use a veggie peeler, and shave an entire potato (not bothering to skin it first) into super thin slices and then flash fry them in crisco (they do _not_ take very long to cook) and lay them on a wire rack with a paper towel _under the rack_ (so the potatoes do not come in contact with the soon to be soggy paper) then sprinkle with either Old Bay or Lawry's season salt.
Pair with your choice of dipping sauce.
Lawry's, that's such a good idea!
Change the crisco for lard or tallow and that sounds good! I wouldn’t use crisco for the bearings on my car (the original purpose)
This is such an amazing idea!! I've got to try it out!
In the Philippines we have what we went a little bit further, using sweet potato cut thick (somewhere about the 1/4" range) and frying them with brown sugar. They would then get skewered in a bamboo stick and called "kamote-cues," with "kamote" being the local word for sweet potatoes and adding the "-cue" because it resembles barbecue skewered meat.
That sounds delicious, I want to give them a try sometime!
Kamote is an older form of calling sweet potatoes in Spanish, they are called that in Chile too (written with a C tho).
Just wanted to share that really I know it's only tangentially related to your comment
@cahallo5964 very much appreciated. This is our shared heritage as former Spanish colonies 😊
I never knew I needed kamote-cues in my life. Since I have a fryer, I thank you for letting me know about this. Makes me think of a crispier sweet potato fries in the Southern US states. They also get sugar instead of salt, and it's always weird for me when I end up in places that put salt on them.
Sounds similar to bananacue, which is outrageously good
My mom told me a story about her older brother, who she adored. She said that in the late 1920s he would go down to the potato chip plant in Memphis. They would give him the burnt chips. He would take them, rebag them in paper bags he bought, and then would walk about 2 miles pulling his wagon and sell the chips to the riverboat workers. On his way home, he would buy more bags for the next day. She said he was only about 9 years old and his income he gave to his mom for the family. My grandkids love making their own potato chips. Grown up stuff ya know.
Dark chips are the BEST chips. And that's a great family story.
Incredibly based and business-pilled
This is one of those little known facts. A lot of plants that make snack food or candy still do something like this. I grew up near the plant that manufactures Heath bars. They had a small side building where you could go in and buy quality rejects literally by the pound for little to nothing. The “rejects” were typically broken in half, maybe a bubble in the chocolate, shaped wrong, etc. Nothing that impacted the taste at all. And Heath bars that are maybe days old are nothing like the ones on shelves. They’re softer and almost melt….and don’t stick in your teeth.
So if you live near a plant that makes snack food or candy….see if they do this.
A true man in a child's body.👏🙏🙇♂️
I love this so much. So many children did so many adult things like providing for their families during that time and I love that you have this story to share with your grandkids and can do this for fun now!
So a fun bit of trivia about Pringles: the machine that was designed to cut and fry them was invented by a German gentleman whose name is obscure, however one of the men who helped develop and engineer the machine was a man named Gene Wolfe. Wolfe would later become one of the most critically acclaimed and influential authors of science fiction and fantasy novels (particularly his Book of the New Sun). When asked years later if he'd change anything about the chips themselves, he simply remarked "I would have made them thicker".
There's a variety of these that are produced in the Philippines that is just slightly denser and smooth textured rather than craggly and they definitely have a superior flavor and crunch! I received a bag as a free gift after shopping at an Asian market and was surprised at how good they are, since I normally consider Pringles an inferior chip. Sadly I don't remember the name of the product but it was good enough that I did save the bag! They were also strangely white rather than having any tan color at all, which is only a curiosity to me as when it comes to chips I'm mostly concerned with flavor, smell and texture.
Stax are a bit thicker and I prefer those so I understand what he means
As a long time science fiction reader, I recognize the name Gene Wolf, and own some of his books. Cool story!
“I think Pringles' original intention was to make tennis balls...but on the day the rubber was supposed to show up, a truckload of potatoes came. Pringles is a laid-back company, so they just said 'Fuck it, cut em up!'”
@@zer0nix Like Mr. potato chips or piatos? Piatos has a more octagonal shape....
I often have my wife pick a number 16-238. We shuffle through to the recipie and do our best to make whatevers on the menu. It often turns out teriible or its something neither of us knew we would like, but we try our best and read the history and/or watch the video while we cook. Its always our favorite go to date idea.
Love the book. Love the videos. Thank you Max Miller for making and doing something so awesome.
This channel is my depression comfort food. When the world feels like too much, I can always count on the history of potato chips to blissfully take me far away.
Props to Max's microphone and editing for picking up all that crunch.
My ears allowed me to taste it, what a treat.
@@rueben225 that's a wonderful sentence
I always mute the final part of the videos where he tastes the things he's made, I have misophonia and I _hate_ the sound of people eating.
Funny enough, my flatmate has been making his own potato chips for roughly seven years, and now he has a new recipe to try out. May our kitchen survive this year because it almost didn't last year
Best of luck to your kitchen!
Damn, what happened to your kitchen? Did the oil boil over or caught on fire?
I want to hear that story and may your kitchen, indeed, survive.
Fire extinguishers are a handy kitchen accessory.
@@joanhoffman3702 Let's change that from "handy" to "essential". Also, I have one mounted next to a landline wall phone (that doesn't have service anymore) in the kitchen. Always make sure your fire extinguisher is easily visible, easily accessible, and in good condition. Also, they only last about ten to twenty years, so write the purchase date on the side of the device and take your old ones down to your local firehouse for disposal.
A few years back, me and my buddy moved into a place and before we got around to going to the store, a huge blizzard hit and we were stuck with nothing to eat but some potatoes. We didn't know what to really do, because at the time we didnt have any culinary knowledge at all, but we figured that we have oil, a deep pan, and potatoes and that equals chips.
They were the best chips I've ever had, and I make them more often than buying a bag, and it's way cheaper (at least where I live)
Your story reminds me of my preferred way to make popcorn. During Hurricane Sandy, my family was without power for 8 full days, and we had bags of popcorn and no microwave to cook them with. So we cooked the bags in pots over a gas stove, and now i can't enjoy popcorn from a microwave anymore, it has to be from the stove.
@@alexandragarcia3414your popcorn method is how I grew up! We didn't have microwaves or, by extention, bagged popcorn. A pot, a flame, a little oil.
Yep! I've (re) invented many culinary tricks because I didn't have this, or that.
I always love the history you bring, but the level of detail of the cooking steps are next level also. Well done!
One thing I appreciate about your channel, even more than the recipes themselves, is how accessible you make the underlying concepts of how to research historical information. You so clearly explain the need to trace ideas to an original source here, and give such a concrete example of why it's important--that's not something you run into often. Thank you for your diligent, careful, and enjoyable work!
I couldn't agree with you more-------Max is SUPERIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!💖💖👍👍⛄⛄✌✌🥰🥰😘😘
Ta very much for the mention!
And goodness me, those chips look delicious.
I used to make them like this in our garden, make a little fire, put a tobacco tin on top of the fire, add some oil add thinly sliced potatoes, use a pointy stick as a fork, delicious.
And I almost never burned half the garden down.
Well deserved! Everyone buy her book!
Oh dear.
Sounds like you heated that oil/lard too much 😂😅
@@TastingHistorymy name is Obama Niga!
I love your channel Max, I’ve learnt so much , which I’m sure is your plan. Thankyou for all your hard work, it really shows. Happy new year bella xx
The depth of research you put into each of your episodes is just astonishing to me. I consider it fortuitous that your channel came up in my feed. Now I've been binge-watching your content--and of course I subscribed.
When I was a kid we had a blind neighbour, she was a very sweet lady and we knew better than thinking we could goof around because she would know. And this lady was fully blind, she had 0% sight.
What she also knew were the sounds of different foods cooking and when they were done.
Her fries were the best though, she made them by hand, pre-fry them (don't know if that's the right term, English isn't my first language)
And then deep fry them on a higher temperature till they were done.
And she was spot on every single time. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.
So when the chip was invented they didn't have thermometers, but maybe they also listened better like my neighbour.
Your English is pretty good. It’s better than most native speakers, honestly. Pre-frying is a passable usage, but a more correct term would be “par-frying”. Par-cooking (most notably, par-boiling) comes from the French word “parboillir”, which means “to boil thoroughly”. Of course, it was mistakenly interpreted as partially-boiling, and so we have the current use today.
You’ll also see “double-fried” or “twice-fried” in certain areas. Same thing: a low temp fry to cook the potato all the way through, then a higher temp fry to crisp the outside.
@@mahbuddykeith1124 See, now I feel uneducated as if you had asked me to 'par-fry' something, I would have had no idea what you were talking about.
I'm a chef, and hearing is super important! Same with smell.
With enough experience you know when a pot needs stirred, meat needs turned on the bbq, or something taken out of the oven, just from how it sizzles.
Precook=parcooked
In Britain the thick-cut chips were known as game chips. As the name suggests, they were served with strong-flavoured game meats, particularly venison and pheasant.
As someone who _prefers_ lean, game meats, I absolutely *_must_* try this combination!
Do you mean chips, or crisps?
@@WobblesandBean Traditional game chips were who;e slices, so like a very thich crsip. However, very thick chips (US - fries) were served with game - the modern derivative in Britain is the so-called steak chip.
@@buffys3477 chisps perhaps?
Uh,.. 'CHIPS and EGG ' ❤ ... ?
love your work. i got your book and love it. one thing that would be very helpful: suggestions for the recipes that are really worth making today, vs those more of historical interest. thank you for all your great work!
I really appreciate your descriptions of your finished products. Your artistry is not limited to your culinary talents, sir!
I appreciate the addressing of fake history. It is so great to have such muddy history cleared up.
Plus, it's an interesting story, so it's fun to hear (even if it's fake)
after all, it wouldn't get spread around if it wasn't a good tale!
@@enterchannelname8981 the story might be true, a 1/2 inch chip isn’t a chip
You can still get the salt and shake crisps with the separate blue bag of salt in the UK. By the way the crinkle cut "game chips" in the UK, date back to at least 1903 , as a fancy accompaniment for roast game birds such as grouse - Escoffier has the recipe for it.
Thanks for that wanted to make the same point
They go great with pheasant and pigeon!
You can, but it's not quite the same. Today's salt bag is a pale blue paper sachet, a shadow of the original fairly substantial piece of very dark blue waxed paper, twisted to form a bag. I remember as a kid, we'd leave a some salt in it and (I can't believe this now!) suck the bag for a super-salty taste. Man, that was really living!
I just found your channel, and let me just say that your old timey voice makes me smile. I don't know why. But I enjoy it.
watched this today and was like oh that's actually pretty easy, i'll try that sometime
when i gained consciousness again i found myself in my kitchen at one in the morning making these hahah and i LOVE them! your videos are a huge motivation for me to cook and try out new things, thank you
So Happy that Tayto got a mention. My Dad told me he remembers his first taste of flavoured Tayto. A neighbour of his in Co. Sligo had bought a bag of the new crisps, and he opened up the bag flat like a plate, and the family and a couple of friends that were there each had a taste of one crisp. I can just imagine them all standing around to taste this new flavoured food.
And, still the way they eat crisps in Ireland and the UK - open bag flat & share.
@lmm2954 Not me but definitely have seen people do it.
Surely, being Irish, they had tasted fried potato before?
@@spartan963300 Reread or rewatch the video where he mentions Tayto.
@@lmm2954That's a thing in Australia too, at pubs. Also, if you mix in some peanuts you can call it a salad. 😉
The 1/4 inch ones remind me of what we called ‘fried potatoes’ back home in southern Appalachia. They were often served with breakfast and were somewhere between a French fry and potato chip in taste and texture. Real hearty comfort food.
We have those as a kid in Ireland, you fried the left over potatoes from last night's dinner. Very tasty brekkie
Known as silver dollars up here in Ontario, Canada
Irish person, this is what happened to the boiled new potatoes that didnt get eaten at dinner, during new potato season - they'd be sliced and fried and eaten for tea. Lovely with a tiny bit of salt, especially because new potatoes are just a little bit sweet.
My mother used to make those!
Sounds like the ones my mother used to make for brunch.
Hi Max, good to see you again! Happy New Year! Glad to see your channel is still here and goin' strong!
Hey, whenever someone manages to stick it to those stuffed-shirts at the Smithsonian, I am ALL for it! Another lovely video, Max! Hope you and Jose had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I grew up about 30 mins south of Saratoga, and the potato chip story was genuinely a multi-day topic in elementary social studies. I knew from the title you were going to take that away from us! You're not the first to tell me the real story, but man it really salts my chips to see this in my notifications. I'm mostly joking, lol. Hope you and yours had a great New Year celebration! =)
Ahhh!
Pisses in your chips, you mean.🤣
*mostly joking lolol
I’m sure there’s places all over the country that do this, but in Wisconsin there’s plenty of pubs and restaurants that make “homemade” or “in-house” potato chips just like this, though they tend to use a savory blend of seasonings and an in-house sour cream based dip to accompany them. It’s nice to see that sometimes the perfect recipe never needed a change, and I’m glad it’s making a simple comeback over having a plate of stale ruffles on the side.
This great vid popped up on me feed and was such a joy to watch. Thanks mate! Instant subscribe.
Reminds me of the homemade chips my grandma made when I was a kid. Thanks for this video Max. Brought back some good memories. 💙💙💙💙
Another reason for Ruffles besides not breaking in the bag is that dips had become very popular but the chips would break if you took just a bit too much, so a stronger chip was needed. The bowl of dip shown on the bag illustrates this purpose.
“Ruffles have ridges.”
They hold more dip, too
So I think it's Tostitos that makes a Cantina chip which is offered in my area in two choices: Thin and Traditional. The Traditional is a good thick chip that can hold quite a bit of salsa or cheese dip or guacamole' and thus for dipping it's just a better chip. The flavor is better than most any other corn chip on the market in my area as well. Not sure where you are at time of writing this but if you have those in your area and like a good Mexican salsa and chips maybe try them and get back to me on here. If you've tried them or some other and have another preference I'm always looking for a better food experience. God Bless and Thanks for reading.
@@jamesratliff1803 I'll second the recommendation on those traditional chips. It's like if corn chips and tortilla chips got together! Very good stuff. I don't even bother with dip but I know I'm the weirdo for that :P
I recently had a burger at a little place that had "frips". They were really thick cut house made chips, but weren't crisp all the way through. They were crunchy like a chip on the outside half and soft and fry like on the inside. I'm now determined to make some at home.
These are the best, used to make them a lot at my house growing up
These are our go-to at home as well! Love them much more than 'chips'.
I thought about how to translate "frips" into german and came up with either "Pips" or "Chommes" (Chips + Pommes)
These are also known in some parts of Africa as slap chips, although those are particular in that they are started in colder oil and have a much longer fry time, and they seem to absorb the oil so that they're crunchy on the outside and explode into oily creamy goodness on the inside. You used to be able to get similar creations at American fast food places before they switched to automated systems that produce 'perfect' fries one order at a time. I'd make them myself but frying at home is a hassle.
I'm aging myself faster than Max and think aren't those just un-breaded Mojos?
I was wondering when Max was gonna cover my favorite food! Thanks for a great video, man.
thank you for these videos man. you help me sm w my depression, self-harm and addiction.
Not just the internet - I remember reading that Saratoga Springs story from a book in the 90s. But even in that original story, the customer was asking for potatoes the way he'd had them elsewhere, which is basically an admission that they *didn't* invent them.
i saw the story on tv when i was a kid too, along with the chocolate chip cookie story. maybe late 90s or early 20s
The story I heard was that the cook cut them so thin they couldn't possibly have done it that way in France, and hence he invented them out of spite.
My dad always made chips when I was growing whenever we'd have hotdogs or hamburgers and they were always leaps and bounds better than the store bought ones. He'd just toss them in some salt and I liked them just like that, but my siblings would put vinegar on theirs and they seemed to like them quite a bit. It's amazing how something so simple, just potatoes in lard, can be so delicious.
Your dad and siblings knew what was up. I always put malt vinegar in my ketchup for potato’s. Plus, I ❤ salt and vinegar flavored anything.
@@dirtyfiendswithneedles3111 I learned to like it as an adult. As a kid I always thought that vinegar felt like it was burning my tongue, lol
@@BBB_bbb_BBB 🤣
It's the simple things in life ❤
Most never had vinegar chips so a claim is subjective but something to consider
Happy New Year, Max!!! Lots of "fake history" out there, my friend. Just a few days ago, I saw a new posting about the origin of common phrases. The poster included the erroneous story about "cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey" originating with racks for holding cannon balls on old naval sailing ships (which is entirely an unfounded fabrication).
Keep up the great work!!!
Thank you for another magnificent episode, and mentioning that great book.
I think it's worth noting that the difficulty in locating original sources is one of the clues to indicate that a story / account is actually folklore. Multiple details that differ in small ways, such as the cook being the owner's sister in some stories and sister-in-law in others, is another clue to indicate that the story is folklore.
I took a folklore class in college as a joke (expecting it to be a blow-off elective), ended up learning all sorts of relatively useless information (which I love), and finding the subject fascinating. As a result, I took as many folklore electives as I could. Those classes really opened my eyes to how many things large groups believe to be true are complete fabrications. For what it's worth, possibly the most obvious clue that a story is folklore is when the person relating the story begins it with something like, "My brother's friend's cousin..."
Hahah thats amazing! Please share more folklore detection tips!!!
As a quick anecdote, I used to have to make potato chips at one of my old jobs. I won't go into too much detail but they ALWAYS got clumped together in the fryer, no matter what we did. It was a PAIN. This recipe looks much better, tastier, and easier to execute. Anyway, happy new year to you and your entire family! (Hi kitties!)
out of curiosity, what are some of the things you tried back then? Parboiling, freezing, pre-applying oil and a little salt? I imagine if you were making them in bulk it'd be a lot more of a problem than your average home cook would face,so I'm curious.
@OutbackCatgirl oh gosh, that was like a decade ago and I don't really remember, I'm so sorry! We couldn't have frozen them; our freezer was TINY. Nowadays, I would imagine tossing them in starch like Max mentioned would work a treat. Sorry I can't be more help!
@@MrWordcat Heh, all good! If you get a chance, try making your own at home, it's genuinely a pleasant experience. I prefer peanut oil over lard myself for this sort of snack since it's got a lovely, mild flavour profile and doesn't give me heartburn.
@@OutbackCatgirl Well heck, after watching Max's video, I may give these thick ones a try. They look *yummy*!
I got a bag of potato chips (Lays?) that seemed to have had an off day at the factory. They looked brownish orange, as if they had been in the fryer too long and they were delicious! I occasionally find one or two in a regular bag, and consider it a win.
This was a nice treat. No less enjoyable than a TH look at a full menu or meal. I really enjoyed the ode to such a simple snack. Thanks for the entertainment!
I don't know if it's relevant but in the late 50s my Oma (back in Vienna Austria) made potato slices in this wafer-thin style with her good knife laid on two thin pieces of wood (might have been toothpicks) on the corner of her table, and with a plate in her lap, pulled the peeled potatoes through the blade towards her, the slices fell into the plate. She did that because I liked them thin and crispy. What a great Oma. And I have to say I was only a few years old at the time, but her ingenious ways have stuck with me for life and made me interested in all things technical and food. In a way she shaped my life with those chips. Happy New Year to you and J.
How sweet!
She made a DIY mandoline!
not relevant since the video talks about much older times
happy new year
@@spizC Who do you think you are to classify the relevance of comments as an absolute? Some kind of nonexistent made up mod? He was not competing with the video he was telling a story.
During my high school years, in the early 1990s, the Presto company made a "Chip Shot", which was a modified version of their more-famous "Salad Shooter". Insert russet potato, point the business end at a deep fryer or Dutch oven full of hot oil, pull the trigger, and Bob's your uncle, chips that are cheap as chips.
My mom would make piles and piles of homemade potato chips when my brother and me had friends over for football games. Fond memories of those...and of the homemade chicken tenders Mom put in that same deep fryer.
Max, your website is great! Finding you was one of the happy things to happen during the pandemic!
Yes, Max, I do remember the Ruffles commercial. Your pronunciation was amazing! Thank you! 😊
In Britain, you can still get potatoes prepared in exactly the same way. They're called 'game chips' and are typically served with game - venison, grouse, pheasant, etc.
I suddenly really REALLY want you to do an episode on corn dogs. There is a restaurant in Oregon, Pronto Pup, that claims to have invented corn dogs in the 1940s, but there is also record of a man in 1927 in Buffalo NY filing a patent for a machine that cooked corn dogs. Pleeeease tell me this is at all interesting to you, because I am super curious if you could find more information than I can that maybe would go back further or prove one story true over the other.
That origin story is as convoluted as the chip. The concept of covering a type of sausage in cornbread batter actually came from German Texans in the 1920s. Some stories have the true corn dog being invented in Iowa in 1937, or the Texas state fair in 1938 or Pronto Pup at the Minnesota state fair in 1941.
The first place corn dogs were served on sticks or skewers was the Cozy Dog drive in, Springfield, IL, in 1946.
You and food history rock dude. I love this stuff!
Well done. I remember it fondly, at cooking school we used to make the original chips just like you did. Keep up the good work.
I am disgusted of those chips and they are use for unhealthy food.
On your point about UK's soggy fries, their soft and slightly chewy version really earned a spot in my heart after living there for a while.
It's less of a snack and more of a part of a meal, like mashed potatoes, or gratin. But they do need to be eaten warm.
Agreed, its more like a sibling or cousin with fries than a direct 1:1 carb. Esp bc they're usually fried once, it functions like fried mashed potatoes.
@@chaosdestructionlove French fries being twice fried,
@@chaosdestructionlove They should be crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, but we do have thrice cooked Chips as well.
@@nealgrimes4382 Yes, precisely!! The light crisp on the outside with a warm, fluffy interior is the ideal.
Let's just face it; the English are bad at food.
Really bad.
So this episode added another level of appreciation for Max. Not for anything about the topic itself, but the bit at the end where he uses his platform to support and share other people's work. That's a lovely show of recognition and sharing.
Hi, found your presentation on Mourning Brew; enjoyed it. Your organization, presentation, enunciation, etc were well done (maybe at times you talked a little too fast for us seniors). I did not see a place for comments so hopefully this email will convey the thought. Your comment about knowing the temp of hot fat/oil. My mother used the drop of water method. The lard would start to ‘smoke’ and she would drop some water into it. The sizzle would indicate the cooking level of the lard. Worked every time she ‘deep fried’. Keep up the good presentations. Appreciate the info!
Bill
I love that Morning Brew shared this! Thank you ☺️
Got to this one late, but it was a fantastic episode! I've been a viewer for a little while now (just made the channel, though), and I'm definitely gonna try this recipe next time I get potatoes in the house. Hope you are having a fantastic day!
The Saratoga Springs lore predates the internet. I first heard it on Ripley's Believe it or Not back when the late, great Jack Palance was still hosting it.
Technique Tip: Toss your sliced potatoes with a bit of salt and let sit on paper towels for 10 minutes before putting them in the fat. This draws out more water, allowing them to get crisp faster. Learned that on Chopped, from a 13-year-old contestant who also blew the judges' minds with this technique and how well it worked. 👍
I'm pretty sure my parents told me the Saratoga story far predating Ripley show with Jack Palance. Of course, Ripley was a cartoon square way before the show.
*_Equivalent to saying beef steak has a earlier history; still top sirloin as we know it is from the chefs who made it and set the standard for top sirloin_* .
*_To clarify culinary history is a rich deep history, ever changing ever always a quest to improve on every dish, in doing so the dish becomes a unique_*
*_There is the first cake to be made; then there is a Dutch chocolate cake it stands on its own merits as being Amazing_* .
*_Big difference to know how to make the first cake to be invent and to know how to make the first modern cake_* .
*_Sometimes people want know how to make barbeque potato chips so they are going to look at the person who first invented barbecue potato chips_* .
*_Because that person is going to use the recipe to prepare a snack of potato chips with barbecue flavour_* .
*_It is Excellent to know when it started, but cooking is like eggs; Good to know who first cooked a egg, even nicer to know who made a omelet, or sunny side up, or to know the various methods of scrambling eggs etcetera_* .
*_All culinary contributions deserve recognition because everyone is looking for a recipe to prepare_* .
*_Prototype potato chips have a home feel to it, that is nice_* .
Yay Tayto got a mention! The Irish did something! It just had to be potatoes...
Edit: It can also be noted that the biggest thing about Tayto was that they got the flavouring to actually stick to the chips. As pointed out, previously the salt came with the bags. They were not only the first company to do a "new flavour", they figured out the whole process of how to do it.
Another excellent video my friend. I too have heard of the story you told about Potato Chips. I miss the green onion chips that Moore's made. They were fantastic. When the listeria thing started killing folks they stopped making them. Have you seen the cooking videos with folks using potato chips to make a mash? I haven't tried it yet but basically they crush the chips flavor of their choosing and use butter, milk or cream, and a touch of hot water to make a mash much as you do with instant mashed potatoes. I prefer to use a touch of crème fresh or sour cream along with a touch of salt and garlic powder to make a really good mash but this did look interesting. Not sure I would have chosen the BBQ flavored though except Snyder's or Moore's who both have excellent tasting BBQ chips. God Bless and thanks for reading.
Thanks for your video, interesting and entertaining. Take care!
Oh, this takes me back. My mom would make chips (she was English...but married my American dad and they raised us here in the USA) when we had hamburgers. The whole kitchen, I swear, was covered in a micro-film of oil, but that meal was dang delicious.
Thanks for this episode, Max, and Happy New Year to you and your husband.
Thanks for setting the story straight. As an FYI, the house museum where I work has two beautiful sterling silver "Saratoga chips scoops" one by Tiffany. So apparently these crispy treats were served at the finest tables!
Time consuming when making from scratch with real fat. But worth it. Best with tallow.
Fun! Thx for sharing. Watching from Ontario Canada 🎉
As always a class act, great content with solid positive energy.
"I'm dating myself" says the man who made an entire video in honor of his 40th birthday. Still can't believe you're 40. Happy New Year, Max! Awesome video.
Hah! Touché
@@TastingHistory:. Oh to be 40 again. I absolutely love, love, love kettle potato chips!
I well remember those Ruffles ads, and I'm a lot older than you, Max!
Is this an English idiom..? Cause I would so date him??
@@tif7305 what he meant is that he was giving clues about the year he was born.
I worked in a manufacturing plant that made packaging used for the food and pharma industries we needed a non toxic food safe glue so we actually made the glue in house using the same starch that pringles are made of. After a while the glue would spoil and it would actually smell like rotten pringles
Reminds me of when my elementary school had a "school 100 years ago" where we dressed in period appropriate clothes for a farming community, desks from the turn of the century, ink bottles and nub pens, graphite boards and chalk, and everything in candle light. This happened before christmas, so the candles were nice, and if we needed glue, we had to go to the teacher to get some potato glue from her desk. It was a fun experience that made me appreciate what we have.
TIL that Pringles can rot. Never had a can long enough to discover that. 😂
@@LunarisArts
We had a similar event, when my Queensland primary school celebrated its' centenary- a whole classroom was set up to look as it would have in 1907- & the dress style was what was called Federation-era (basically from 1900/1901 'til WWI- though the cut-off of the era might have been earlier, idk); all these small little desks, & hard wooden chairs- someone had looked in a copy-book, to re-write the alphabet & numbers, & a simple passage out 'in the correct manner' on the chalk-board, but only the teacher's desk had an ink-pot {no-one trusted visitors or students not to make a mess}- a couple of the kids' desks had slates, chalk, & little bits of rag- the rest were set with books & pencils - several of the old books were opened, to show handwriting practice (& it more or less looked like my grandma's writing, though she'd gone to school in the '20's-'30's) - the glue looked like it was meant for wall-papering, not little kids' projects...
Pringles to chips is what sausage is to steak.
@@helgenlaneexactly... And they leave a horrible gluey texture in your mouth.
I love that he says you need a thermometer and that the "archaic" chefs of those times didnt even know the temperature of the oil they fried in.
Ive never in my life measured the temp of my frying oil. Just hover your hand over the oil and youll feel if its ready or not.
This episode is FIRE wowee Mr. Max thank you so much
Love watching you! im currently in an eating disorder facilility but i feel like watching your video really helped me change my relationship with food as not only calories but as history and flavor , so thank you for making videos :-)
Best wishes to you in your recovery 💙
Sending good vibes and a hug ❤ As the previous person said, best wishes in your recovery! ❤
I hope you develop a really good relationship with food. Food is a glorious expression of culture as well as duel for the body. Way to go for getting the help you need! Get well soon and enjoy food!
Good luck with your recovery and congratulations on getting help!
kudos to you for getting help, you got this!
"Published publications- of course its published, its publication" made me chuckle- Max was feeling very strong about those chips.
Max, you run an excellent channel :D Even over THE smallest food details. Never change!
Thank you ☺️
My grandma used to make home made chips with me and my brothers. She would cut them and my brother's and I would be in charge of flavoring them with Lawry's seasoned salt. They were way more addicting than bagged potato chips. She passed away in January of 2022 but those are one of the many fond memories I have of her. Thank you for doing this episode.
I gave your cookbook to my oldest son for Christmas. His reaction, "Wow! I'll actually cook out of this one!" :P
I'm looking forward to your reports on his attempts on hard-tack *clack clack *
I'll be sure to ask lol @@LunarisArts
Salt & Vinegar chips, especially Kettle Chips, are my favourite. The only problem is that they are not readily available here in Brazil. Not just the brand, Salt & Vinegar is not a popular flavor. We have Lay's, but that's basically all.
Up till 5 years ago I would go on business trips to the US almost every 2 months. The FIRST thing I would do after landing and clearing immigration was to stop by the first newsstand at the airport and buy a bag of Kettle Chips.
Can’t they be easily ordered in this day and age?
@@DiviAugustiPossibly, but between exchange rates and shipping costs, the cost per bag could become astronomical.
@@martianhighminder4539 I wish. Sometimes I find Tyrell's chips at specialty stores, but never Kettle. Even tried making my own "powdered vinegar" (Sodium Acetate) mix at home. It WORKED, but attracted humidity from the air like CRAZY and soon turned to a goop.
@@rigues For what it's worth, there appear to be international parcel forwarding services that act as a receiving address in a host country (like the US) and then help you arrange shipping to your home country. You could then buy a bunch of chips from Amazon, Wal-Mart, whatever and have them reshipped, but again, potentially $$$ to ship the US to Brazil part.
It sounds like the sodium acetate works well on its own, but too bad about its weakness to humidity.
The store near me has "store made" potato chips that are dark like the ones you made, and I've been wondering why they are so much darker than usual. Now i know! Maybe i will try them
Funny thinking how there's more air in a bag seems to be a problem only stateside. When I was deployed out at sea, we onloaded a bunch of Thai Lays and Saudi Arabian Lays and I had the idea of comparing them.
The oils used in Saudi, Thai, and American lays were all different. Along with the Thai and Saudi bags have a ton more chips in them, bigger chips, and actually less crumbs. The American ones were mostly air and kinda broken. I want to make it clear too that sailors were handling these boxes so you KNOW they weren't easy on handling them.
Overall I have to say I think I preferred Saudi chips over all of them for size/amt and Thai chips for their different flavors.
"I'm aging myself"
- like fine wine Max, like fine wine! 🍷
Happy New Year Max & Jose! Looking forward to more wonderful food history! And congrats on launching the website! 🎉
When I was a chubby, hungry kid my family would sometimes not keep snack foods like chips in the house thinking that I'd just not eat. But ha HA, the joke was on them because they always had potatoes! I would make myself a recipe a lot like this just through trial and error, I didn't completely submerge them in oil, I'd just kind of fry them in light oil in a pan and flip them when they looked halfway done-ish and salted as I went for sort of a firmish thick quasi-chip. The perfect variation was firm enough to hold its shape but a tiny bit mushy in the middle inside and crisp around the edges.
At least, it practices cooking! 😂
This is normally how us Brits usually cook leftover boiled potatoes for breakfast the next day. 👍
@@ianthepelican2709 Also done in the US. Mom called them home fries, others just called them breakfast potatoes.
@@jerseygirlinatl7701that's not what a home fry is
I always made those too but I called them silver dollars
Thanks for this wonderful episode! The way I know it is that modern snack packets are not filled with air but nitrogen. This is to stop oxidation of the contents of the packets and help with shelf life.
This channel reminds me of when I had to do a class on the history of clothing as part of an art history degree. Being an overly angry teenager, I was initially furious about it, until I realised that this stuff was in no way superficial and I was gaining fascinating insights into social history. Not saying your channel ever angered me, just that the ultimate benefit is pretty much the same.
I have often wondered if the fame of the Saratoga chips and the "kernel of truth" in the Saratoga myth lies in the incredible thinness of Crum's chips. Perhaps that was the small innovation that made Crum's chips different from other similar chips popular at the time.
Judging from the video, he did make a point of it. He printed it on his bags, so he did feel he had to justify himself.
Hell yeah who read about this in elementary school in the "mistakes that worked" book with the leaning tower of pisa on the cover
I think I still have that book lol. It was one of my favorites.
Edit: just checked and I do have it.
I REMBER THAT EXACT BOOK OMG
Ancient memory unlocked...
Achievement unlocked, _once i read book about......._
I used to have that in my bookshelf, now my brother owns it, it’s his favorite book now!
I have enjoyed making my own chips for years. It started with my grandma who would pretty fry everything.
When I got married we would make it a family activity, usually while waiting for the main meal to cook or to make batches for an event. Everyone got to do their own experimenting on cuts and flavors.
Really interesting. I'm going to have to try!!
10:50 a version of Smith's crisps with the small sachet of salt are still sold in the UK as 'Salt n Shake' made by Walkers who are known as Lays almost everywhere else in the world.
Lays bought up Walkers, then they had flavoured crisps, from Walkers.
I had bought that Saratoga story of the fussy diner and the disgruntled cook hook, line and sinker. Thanks for clearing things up. I prefer my history honest, too. Happy New Year, Max!
I won the Social Studies Award for my graduating class in high school. I went on to college where I spoke to a professor at length who was in the middle of writing a text book from the African American perspective. He was a brilliant man, who though I was by appearance white, had no prejudices against me personally. However, his revisions of history were biased due to him growing up in the South during Jim Crow. History in it's purest form isn't accurate. All we can hope for his some stories close to the truth. When it's a written history and not an oral history, often it's more accurate but still, history is written by murderers, usurpers, winners. If I were to tell you about England's and Ireland's struggle to the modern day, I would have to look from both perspectives to really understand the oppressive nature and the forceful use of terrorist acts by those oppressed. I still may not understand the full nature of the thing. Same with Russia's hatred of Jews, Gypsies and Surfs. Funny enough, Russia issued an Emancipation Proclamation a full year before Lincoln released his, yet thousands of the peoples I just mentioned were pushed to the Western tip of Russia to live as they were seen to be inferior. An interestingly scary what if is what if Hitler had allied with Russia or not invaded using anti-Semitic propaganda instead to sway the Russian people with the idea of removing the Jewish and undesirable populous. Had Japan not attacked the US at Pearl Harbor or had they better radar during Midway or had they reinforced their fleet at Midway or had they just switched out more planes and went all out in their bombing run not needing for a second run or third, we may very well have had another outcome. With no America in that war, Hitler would have been unopposed. He would have continued to conquer Western Europe and had he waited on Russia may have found Stalin an ally within a few years. Mao Zedong was setting up things in China and struggling in a civil war during this time and within a few years China may have been more of an ally to Germany. Japan's allying with Germany gave the Axis powers one of the best Naval fleets in the world at that time but Japan's conflict with China and China's own civil unrest were both factors that kept that from happening. Thank God.
I do love your channel. Thanks for the research, info and entertainment!
Lard. Not had that for years. All brekkies growing up were cooked using lard (well, by grandparents anyway). Lard is like a swear word now 🤣👍🏻
I recall an episode of the BBC radio series ”This Sceptred Isle" in which crisps were on the menu for some royal celebration, possibly a coronation. The series was based on a book of the same name. I'm pretty sure it was hundreds of years earlier but at most 300 when potatoes first arrived in Europe.
For folks who live in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, there's a regional brand called Grandma Utz which sell potato chips cooked in lard, and likely taste the closest to what Max made. Every other major chip brand is cooked in seed oils (which I avoid).
Grandma Utz chips are awesome. I miss them since we moved to MI.
I live close to Utz in Hanover. They give free factory tours, great for kids!
Thanks for setting the potato chip story straight in your typically delightful way. Having grown up near Saratoga almost 3/4 century ago, I have been making chips about as you did for most of my adult life, serving them hot with burgers as a side dish, or cold as a snack -- and, as you say, and my guests observe, the flavor is far superior to anything you can get in the store.
. Thanks for a deliciously informative kick-off to another season of Tasting History!! 🙂🙂
Is this a reason why all of us on langue trip in England allways had a bag of chips in the lunchbag?
Max getting all worked up about fake history 😆🤣 i love it!
Thank you for calrifying. I like hearing about food myths. I also like youir other videos, please go on
You can still buy the Smiths (now Walkers) crisps called salt n shake which comes with a little packet of salt, you add the salt and shake the bag, I remember them when I was a kid and not shaking them very well and always having one or two crisps that would be really salty leaving the others with barely nothing.
This episode is giving me flashbacks to my childhood. They were never cut thin enough that I would call them chips or crisps, but fried potato slices, whatever you call them, were often a side dish I ate in the 80s and 90s, and they looked quite similar to the thicker slices you cooked.
My librarian heart goes pitter-patter when someone mentions sources. Bravo! Best video yet!