Crisps, chips? English, Australian, American?
"The crisp ... is one of the earliest and most successful products of the long and happy marriage between industrialised food and a cheap, abundant crop." Jon Henley - The Guardian
This is another Aldi inspired article, for alongside the Bisto, were packets of Smith's Crisps now costing, as you can see, $2.49, but back in my youth a mere 2 pennies - tuppence as we said back then.
I'm not sure whether this is the kind of packet I remember or not - I vaguely remember it as being blue, but I could not find a picture of such a pack. This one is transparent so that you can find the little twist of salt in blue greaseproof paper hidden inside. You fished out the little packet, opened it up and sprinkled the salt over the crisps. You then closed up the packet and shook it up to distribute the salt. Actually I have a vague memory of my mother forbidding the salt, though I find this hard to believe as we did have salt on the dinner table at home.
We did not eat a lot of them. They were a treat when we went on one of Rosemary's Rambles. Yes I was rambling even back then. We had a car - one of my father's impulse buys on one of his stays back home after a long sea voyage. And at weekends we would go for a drive, with me as the map-reader and trip planner. You see I did geography at school and anyway I had always loved maps. So I would get out the ordnance survey map and plan a trip through the Essex countryside, down little lanes - if possible through a ford along the way. At some point we would stop at a country pub and my mother and father would go and have a drink. We kids would either stay in the car if it was raining or be parked in the pub garden or on the village green with a lemonade and a packet of crisps. If it was a nice day in the summer there would often be a game of cricket on the village green.
All very idyllic and I do remember it very, very fondly. We must have visited just about every village in Essex and gone down every country lane. Don't listen to the jokes about Essex. It's a very pretty county. I think my parents enjoyed it too. I don't know if there were other makes of crisps but we only ever had Smiths.
So whilst our Smiths Crisps were not exactly picnic fare, the company obviously thought that it was the perfect snack food for the village green too, as this poster shows. And there were a few other similar ones too.
Smiths Crisps were begun in 1920 by Frank Smith, supposedly from his garage in Cricklewood, London.
"In 1920, Smith's Potato Crisps Company Ltd was formed in Cricklewood, north London, with Mrs Smith peeling, slicing and frying the potatoes in the garage and Frank Smith packing them into greaseproof bags (later with a pinch of salt in a twist of blue paper inside) and selling them across London from his pony and trap. The firm was so successful it had moved to new premises and hired 12 full-time staff before its first year was out." Jon Henley - The Guardian
All was not lost however, for in 1931 Frank Smith had gone to Australia to expand the business there, and the Australian company which he formed with George Ensor bailed out, nay bought up I think, the English company. Since then it has changed hands multiple times, dropped the name Smiths, in favour of Walkers - a competitor with which it merged at some point and the whole thing is now owned by Pepsi. For a more detailed history there is an excellent summary in The Guardian, which also talks about crisps in more general terms.
Being British, both the Guardian and I adhere to this story of the origins of potato crisps, but the Americans also have a legend which resulted in the Saratoga chip. Which is probably where the name chip comes from, though why the Australians should prefer chip over crisp I have no idea. In this story a native American, but famous chef, George Crum, in 1853, got very annoyed with his customer Cornelius Vanderbilt, who kept sending back his french fries as too soggy and too thick. So Crum sliced a potato really thinly, fried it and salted it, which to his surprise was a huge success with his customer. There seems to be a small degree of doubt about this particular story.
There is evidence that the idea was even older though with a recipe from 1819 which is as follows"
“Peel large potatoes - cut them in shavings, round and round as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping”
Dr William Kitchiner ‘The Cook’s Oracle’ 1817
Whatever the story is, it is alarming how the crisp - or the chip - depending on where you come from - is now sold in mind-boggling and alarming quantities, and has been blamed for much of the current problems with obesity and its associated health problems. The Guardian article, written way back in 2010 had some very alarming statistics.
In the very early 60s they discovered how to add the salt to the crisps in the making process and also how to add flavours, which has led to a proliferation of flavours.
"Walkers will probably have 15 flavours in the market: the first five are generally the same, the other 10 will be changing pretty much constantly." James Stillman, Head of Research and Development, Walkers
And Pringles? Well those and their ilk are not even sliced potatoes. They are formed from 42% potatoes, but not sliced - a dehydrated powder I think. The rest is from flour of some kind. All of it is processed to a dough, rolled out, shaped and fried.
But we love them all don't we? They are very moresome. If you put some down in front of almost anyone they will just keep dipping in.
"There is the physical experience. The crunch, the smell, the taste, how the salt dissolves on your tongue, how the flavours develop in your nose. Take our Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli: put one in your mouth and think. There's a five-second journey going on there, but you won't get it unless you really think." James Stillman, Head of Research and Development, Walkers
The British and their colonial cousins are particularly prone apparently.
"Crisps are our olives. The continentals once had plain olive oil. Now there's extra virgin, single estate, first cold pressed, extra virgin single varietal first cold pressed – you name it. We used to have plain ready salted; now there's any number of flavours, as well as traditionally cut, individually hand fried and the rest ...
The potato has iconic status in this country; it's a subsistence food. A love of the potato is hard-wired into our gastronomic DNA. Plus, we've always been a grazing, snacking culture – look at our eating opportunities, we have more than anyone else: breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea, high tea, supper, dinner . . . The French, the Italians, the Spaniards, eat twice a day, max. They're not snackers. The crisp is the perfect food for us." Matthew Fort
But not healthy. There's a whole other post waiting to be written on the profusion of healthy crisps/chips that you can now buy, so I won't go there today. Another time perhaps. Kale chips anyone?
"It takes an entire bunch of kale and two baking sheets to make four servings, but I have always felt it was worth the effort, and I definitely count the result as a vegetable. After all, the amount of oil and salt I use to make them is about the same as if I had sauteed the greens." Ellis Krieger - Good food
Coming soon!
