Potato chip

A potato chip or crisp is a thin slice of potato, deep fried or baked until crisp. Potato chips serve as an appetizer, side dish, or snack. Commercial varieties are packaged for sale, usually in bags. The simplest chips of this kind are just cooked and salted, but manufacturers can add a wide variety of seasonings (mostly made using herbs, spices, cheese, artificial additives or MSG). Chips are an important part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries and many other Western nations.

There is little consistency in the English speaking world for names of fried potato cuttings. North American English uses 'chips' for the above mentioned dish -- this term is also used in continental Europe -- and sometimes 'crisps' for the same made from batter, and 'French fries' for the hot crispy batons with a soft core. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, 'crisps' are the brittle slices eaten at room temperature and 'chips' refer to that hot dish (as in 'fish and chips'). In Australia, New Zealand and some parts of South Africa, both forms of potato product are simply known as 'chips', as are the larger "home-style" potato chips. Sometimes the distinction is made between 'hot chips' (French fried potatoes) and 'packet chips'.

Non-potato based chips also exist. Kumara (sweet potato) chips are eaten in New Zealand and Japan; parsnip crisps are available in the United Kingdom. There are also regional variations. For example, in parts of the North of England, fried sliced potatoes are sometimes called ("flakies"). India is famous for a large number of localized 'chips shops', selling not only potato chips but also other varieties such as plantain chips, yam chips and even carrot chips. In many countries potato chips have been criticized because of their high fat percentage (approx. 35%) and their acrylamide content.

Origins
It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by Native American/African American chef George Crum, at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 24, 1853. He was fed up with a customer &mdash; by some accounts Cornelius Vanderbilt (although this has been called into question ) &mdash; who continued to send his fried potatoes back, because he thought they were too thick and soggy. Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork, nor fried normally in a pan, so he decided to stir-fry the potato slices. Against Crum's expectation, the guest was ecstatic about the new chips. They became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name "Saratoga Chips." They soon became popular throughout New York and New England. Eventually, potato chips spread beyond chef-cooked restaurant fare and began to be mass produced for home consumption; Dayton, Ohio-based Mike-sell's Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, calls itself the "oldest potato chip company in the United States". It takes approximately 4 pounds of potatoes to make a pound of potato chips.

An earlier reference is Alexis Soyer's recipe in "Shilling Cookery for People" (1845). Here raw potatoes, "almost shavings" are fried. Earlier still, Mary Randolph's book "The Virginia House-wife" (1824) has a part titled "To fry Sliced Potatoes" here raw potatoes are cut into slices or thin shavings and fried "till they are crisp."

Before the airtight sealed bag was developed, chips were stored in barrels or tins. The chips at the bottom were often stale and damp. Then Laura Scudder invented the bag by ironing together two pieces of waxed paper, thereby creating an airtight seal and keeping the chips fresh until opened. In 1934 Akron, Ohio, potato chip maker K.T. Salem was the first to distribute chips in glassine waxed paper bags. Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with nitrogen gas blown in prior to sealing to lengthen shelf life, and provide protection against crushing.

Economy
The global potato chips market generated total revenues of 16.4 billion dollars in 2005. This accounted for 35.5% of the total savory snacks market in that year (46.1 billion dollars).

Seasoned chips
Initially, chips went unseasoned until a twist of salt was placed inside the bag, to be added when required. This idea was originated by the Smiths Potato Crisps Company Ltd formed in 1920. Frank Smith originally packaged them in greaseproof paper bags which were then sold around London, to give them some flavor, he would also include a twist of salt for flavoring. The idea was abandoned when the salting and flavoring process developed by Tayto was applied to crisps during manufacture. Walkers revived the idea of 'salt in a bag', following their take over of Smiths (UK) in 1979, with their Salt 'n' Shake potato crisps.

The potato chip remained unseasoned until an innovation by Joe "Spud" Murphy (1923 – 2001), the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed a technology to add seasoning in the 1950s. Though he had a small company, consisting almost entirely of his immediate family who prepared the crisps, the owner had long proved himself an innovator. After some trial and error, he produced the world's first seasoned crisps, "Cheese and Onion" and "Salt 'n' Vinegar".

The innovation became an overnight sensation in the food industry, with the heads of some of the biggest potato chip companies in the United States heading to the small Tayto company to examine the product and to negotiate the rights to use the new technology. When eventually the Tayto company was sold, it made the owner and the small family group who had changed the face of potato chip manufacture very wealthy. Companies worldwide sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique.

The Tayto innovation changed the whole nature of the potato chip. 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.

Perhaps the most extreme version of seasoned chips were the fruit flavoured chips that were (very) briefly sold in Canada in the late seventies (in orange, cherry and grape flavours). These were not a success, and they were rapidly discontinued.

Regional varieties

 * In the US, the most popular forms of seasoned potato chips include "sour cream and onion", "barbecue" and "ranch". In the Chesapeake Bay area, Utz distributes "crab chips", flavored with an Old Bay analogue seasoning.
 * Within North America, wider varieties are available in parts of Canada, where seasonings include dill pickle, ketchup, poutine, salt & vinegar, bacon and curry. In Toronto and Vancouver, Lay's offers wasabi chips.
 * The market in United Kingdom is dominated by Walkers which is known for its wide variety of crisps. Typical examples include salt & vinegar, cheese & onion, prawn cocktail, worcester sauce, roast chicken, beef & onion, smoky bacon,cheese, lamb & mint, ham & mustard, barbecue, BBQ rib, tomato ketchup, sausage & ketchup, pickled onion, Branston Pickle, Marmite and more exotic seasonings such as Thai sweet chilli, roast pork & creamy mustard sauce, lime and thai spices, lamb with Moroccan spices, sea salt and cracked black pepper, turkey & bacon, caramelised onion & sweet balsamic vinegar, stilton & cranberry and mango chilli. Kettle Foods Ltd's range of thick-cut crunchy crisps include gourmet flavours : 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 flavours. Most seasonings contain only vegetarian-friendly ingredients, although some recent seasonings such as lamb & mint sauce contain meat extracts. In the early 1980s, there even existed 'Hedgehog flavoured crisps'; these were widely on sale and received large publicity.  McCoys Crisps are also popular in the UK. In Northern Ireland Tayto (NI) Ltd. dominate the market. This company is entirely unrelated to the Tayto company in the Republic of Ireland.
 * In Ireland, the common varieties of crisps are mostly the same or similar to the ones sold in the UK. However in Ireland, Tayto are synonymous with crisps (after the Tayto brand, Walkers crisps were launched there several years ago, but have failed to dominate the market.
 * Japan also has a vast range of seasonings; they include nori & salt, consommé, wasabi, soy sauce & butter, takoyaki, kimchi, garlic, chilli, scallop with butter, ume, mayonnaise, yakitori and ramen. Major manufacturers are Calbee, Koikeya and Yamayoshi.

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 familiar potato chip shape before frying. This makes chips that are very uniform in size and shape, which allows them to be stacked and packaged in rigid tubes. In America, the official term for Pringles is "crisps", but they are rarely referred to as such. Conversely Pringles may be termed "potato chips" in Britain, to distinguish them from traditional "crisps".

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.

The success of crisp fried potato chips also gave birth to fried corn chips, with such brands as Fritos, CC's and Doritos dominating the market. "Swamp chips" are similarly made from a variety of root vegetables such as parsnips, rutabagas and carrots. Japanese-style variants include extruded chips, like products made from rice or cassava. In South Indian snack cuisine,there is an item called vadam which is a chip made of an extruded rice/sago base.

There are many other products which might be called "crisps" in Britain, but would not be classed as "potato chips" because they aren't made with potato and/or aren't chipped (for example, Wotsits).

Kettle chips are made by leaving the chips in the fryer longer than the regular chip.

In recipes
In American cuisine, a whole class of recipes exists that use crushed potato chips, often as one would use seasoned bread crumbs. Recipes include those for cookies, pies, breadings for meatloaves and hamburgers, crumb toppings for casseroles and soups, and in sauces or dips, among others. Dipping chips in a sour cream based dip is popular. Putting hot sauce on top of potato chips is popular in Mexico and parts of Texas.

A cheap recipe is the chip sandwich made from a base of two slices of white sandwich bread generously spread with mayonnaise. As many potato chips as possible are heaped on one of the slices, then the second slice is placed on top and pushed down hard until all the potato chips are crushed. This is a snack version of the traditional "chip butty", made with sliced, buttered bread and freshly made French fries. "Crisp sandwiches" are also popular in the UK – a student favorite sees them made with Vitalite spread; in Ireland white bread is spread on both sides with plenty of butter, before being filled with crisps and employing the aforementioned hand-crushing technique to ensure the contents stick to the butter and remain in the sandwich. Potato chips, particularly salt and vinegar, are also a possible addition to tuna salad sandwiches. The chips are layered on top of the tuna as an additional filling. Everything here described can be done also with either Doritos or Cheetos or a combination of all the three for maximum flavour experience.

In New Zealand, potato chips are added to bread with thinly spread Marmite to make a "Marmite And Chip Sandwich". The Australian version of the sandwich uses Vegemite instead of Marmite.

Not strictly a recipe, but another method of preparing crisps is to keep the crisps in the refrigerator, prior to serving. Commonly called ‘cold crisps’, they have a mixed level of acceptance, with some finding them abhorrent, and others seeing ‘cold crisps’ as the correct method of preparation. A common fault in vending machines often results in ‘cold crisps’ being issued, even if crisps at room temperature were desired. In parts of Canada, it is also common to store potato chips in the freezer, and eat them while still frozen.