Chips

In 1853, at a restaurant called Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Spring, New York, a cook named George Crum invented potato chips transparent png download. Angry that a customer, some say, Cornelius Vanderbilt, had returned his french-fried potatoes to the kitchen because they were too thick, Crum sarcastically shaved them paper thin and sent the plate back out. The thin potatoes were a hit with the consumer, whoever he was, and the people around him. Crum soon built his own restaurant across the lake, and customers lined up to try his potato chips despite his policy of not taking reservations.

Potato chips swiftly gained popularity across the country, notably in speakeasies, resulting in a flurry of home-based businesses. On January 6, 1915, Van de Camp’s Saratoga Chips launched in Los Angeles. Earl Wise, a merchant, was faced with an overabundance of potatoes in 1921. He peeled them, chopped them with a cabbage cutter, and cooked them according to his mother’s recipe before wrapping them in brown paper bags. Jays Foods was founded in the early 1920s by Leonard Japp and George Gavora, who sold potato chips, almonds, and pretzels to speakeasies from the back of a rundown truck.

The chips were frequently made in someone’s kitchen and then delivered to stores and restaurants on the same day, or sold on the street. The shelf life was practically negligible. Two innovations cleared the door for mass production. The mechanized potato peeling machine was invented in 1925. Several employees at Laura Scudder’s potato chip firm pressed waxed paper sheets into bags a year later. Hand-packing the chips into the bags, which were then ironed shut.

In 1942, the United States government classified potato chips to be an essential meal, allowing companies to stay operating during World War II. Potato chips were frequently the only ready-to-eat vegetables available. After the war, it was usual to serve chips with dips; a perennial favorite was French onion soup mix poured into sour cream. The popularity of the chip was aided by the fact that Americans carried snacks with them when they sat down in front of their television sets each night.

Chipos® and Pringles®, respectively, were introduced by General Mills and Proctor & Gamble in 1969. They were made from cooked, mashed potatoes that had been dehydrated, reconstituted into dough, and cut into uniform pieces. They were also packaged in breakproof, oxygen-free canisters, which set them apart from earlier chips.

General Mills and Proctor & Gamble were sued by the Potato Chip Institute (now the Snack Food Association) to stop them from branding their goods chips. Despite the dismissal of the lawsuit, the USDA mandated that the new variety be labeled as “potato chips manufactured from dried potatoes.” Fabricated chips, while still available, have never attained the same level of popularity as the original.

In the United States today, potato chips are the most popular snack. Despite the fact that few people believe potato chips are nutritious, they account for 40% of snack food consumption, edging out pretzels and popcorn, according to the Snack Food Association. Nonetheless, developing a palatable low-fat potato chip was a huge issue for manufacturers in the 1990s.