If you want to learn more, please visit our website potato chips packing machine.

When Covid-19 forced people to stay home, many of us found solace in a snack: potato chips. The crispy treats enjoyed around a $350 million increase in sales from 2019 to 2020. When the chips are down, it seems, Americans gobble them up.

Any search for the origins of this signature finger food must lead to George Crum (born George Speck), a 19th-century chef of Native and African American descent who made his name at Moon’s Lake House in the resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York. As the story goes, one day in 1853, the railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was eating at Moon’s when he ordered his fried potatoes be returned to the kitchen because they were too thick. Furious with such a fussy eater, Crum sliced some potatoes as slenderly as he could, fried them to a crisp and sent them out to Vanderbilt as a prank. Rather than take the gesture as an insult, Vanderbilt was overjoyed.

Other patrons began asking for Crum’s “Saratoga Chips,” which soon became a hit far beyond Upstate New York. In 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant near Saratoga known as Crum’s House or Crum’s Place, where a basket of potato chips sat invitingly on every table. Crum oversaw the restaurant until retiring over 30 years later; in 1889, a New York Herald writer called him “the best cook in America.” Crum died in 1914, but today’s astounding variety of potato chips, from cinnamon-and-sugar Pringles to flamin’ hot dill pickle Lay’s, are a tribute to the man American Heritage magazine called “the Edison of grease.” 

Americans consume about 1.85 billion pounds of potato chips annually, or around 6.6 pounds per person.

Still, historians who have peeled the skin off this story have hastened to point out that Crum was not the sole inventor of the chip, or even the first. The earliest known recipe for chips dates to 1817, when an English doctor named William Kitchiner published The Cook’s Oracle, a cookbook that included a recipe for “potatoes fried in slices or shavings.” And in July 1849, four years before Crum supposedly dissed Vanderbilt, a New York Herald reporter noted the work of “Eliza,” also, curiously, a cook in Saratoga Springs, whose “potato frying reputation” had become “one of the prominent matters of remark at Saratoga.” Yet scholars are united in acknowledging that Crum popularized the chip. It was in Saratoga that the chips came into their own—today you can buy a version of Crum’s creations under the name Saratoga Chips—and in America that they became a culinary and commercial juggernaut. 

For a long time, chips remained a restaurant-only delicacy. But in 1895 an Ohio entrepreneur named William Tappenden found a way to keep them stocked on grocery shelves, using his kitchen and, later, a barn turned factory in his backyard to make the chips and deliver them in barrels to local markets via horse-drawn wagon. Countless other merchants followed suit. 

It would take another bold innovator to ignite the revolution, the result of which no birthday party or football game or trip to the office vending machine would ever be the same. In 1926, Laura Scudder, a California businesswoman, began packaging chips in wax-paper bags that included not only a “freshness” date but also a tempting boast—“the Noisiest Chips in the World,” a peculiarly American marketing breakthrough that made a virtue of being obnoxious. The snack took another leap the following year, when Leonard Japp, a Chicago chef and former prizefighter, began to mass-produce the snack—largely, the rumor goes, to serve one client: Al Capone, who allegedly discovered a love for potato chips on a visit to Saratoga and thought they would sell well in his speak-easies. Japp opened factories to supply the snack to a growing list of patrons, and by the mid-1930s was selling to clients throughout the Midwest, as potato chips continued their climb into the pantheon of America’s treats; later, Japp also created what can be considered the modern iteration by frying his potatoes in oil instead of lard.

When Lay’s became the first national brand of potato chips in 1961, the company enlisted Bert Lahr, famous for playing the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, as its first celebrity spokesman, who purred the devilish challenge, “Betcha can’t eat just one.”

Americans today consume about 1.85 billion pounds of potato chips annually, or around 6.6 pounds per person. The U.S. potato chip market—just potato chips, never mind tortilla chips or cheese puffs or pretzels—is estimated at $10.5 billion. And while chips and other starchy indulgences have long been criticized for playing a role in health conditions such as obesity and hypertension, the snack industry has cleaned up its act to some extent, cooking up options with less fat and sodium, from sweet potato chips with sea salt to taro chips to red lentil crisps with tomato and basil. 

Still, for many Americans, the point of chips has always been pure indulgence. Following a year of fast-food buzz, last October Hershey released the most sophisticated snack mashup since the yogurt-covered pretzel: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups stuffed with potato chips. Only history can judge whether this triple-flavored calorie bomb will be successful. But more than a century and a half after Crum’s peevish inspiration, the potato chip isn’t just one of our most popular foods but also our most versatile. 

Inventing How We Eat

Other Black innovators who helped Americans work magic in the kitchen and beyond

By Chris Klimek

Alfred Cralle • Ice Cream Scoop

Working at a Pittsburgh hotel, Cralle saw that serving ice cream with spoons was a sticky task. In 1897, he patented a tool with a mouthful of a name: the Ice Cream Mold and Disher.

Working at a Pittsburgh hotel, Cralle saw that serving ice cream with spoons was a sticky task. In 1897, he patented a tool with a mouthful of a name: the Ice Cream Mold and Disher.

Norbert Rillieux • Refining Sugar

Granulating sugar cane on an industrial scale was difficult and dangerous. Then Rillieux—born in New Orleans, educated in Paris—patented a new method in 1846 that was much more efficient and saved laborers from being burned by boiling juice. Still used to make sugar and glue, Rillieux’s system helped the U.S. dominate the 19th-century sugar trade.

Granulating sugar cane on an industrial scale was difficult and dangerous. Then Rillieux—born in New Orleans, educated in Paris—patented a new method in 1846 that was much more efficient and saved laborers from being burned by boiling juice. Still used to make sugar and glue, Rillieux’s system helped the U.S. dominate the 19th-century sugar trade.

Additional reading:
How do multihead weighers work?
Unlock Profits: 140TPD Wheat Flour Milling Plant Solutions
The Advantages of Implementing Solar Power for Urban Development
How Yuchai Tractor Solves Your Farming Challenges?
Key Questions to Ask When Purchasing a Portable Solar Generator with Warranty Support
How Many Cartons Fit on a Pallet? Essential Guide & Tips!
How Sustainable is Your Animal Feed Choice?

For more information, please visit chocolate wrapping machine.

Joseph Lee • Bread-Making Machine

Building on his 1894 invention of a commercial bread-kneading machine, which helped prevent wasted flour at his Woodland Park Hotel, the Boston-area inventor patented this contraption in 1902. It could mix ingredients and knead dough automatically—a direct precursor to today’s breadmakers.

Building on his 1894 invention of a commercial bread-kneading machine, which helped prevent wasted flour at his Woodland Park Hotel, the Boston-area inventor patented this contraption in 1902. It could mix ingredients and knead dough automatically—a direct precursor to today’s breadmakers.

Frederick McKinley Jones • Refrigeration Unit

His mobile fridge, designed for trucks and trains (1942), made the supermarket possible. It also saved lives during World War II, powering air conditioners for Allied field hospitals to keep blood packs and other supplies from expiring.

His mobile fridge, designed for trucks and trains (1942), made the supermarket possible. It also saved lives during World War II, powering air conditioners for Allied field hospitals to keep blood packs and other supplies from expiring.

Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

The potato chip is one of the US’s favorite snack foods. The snack's invention is an interesting legend, but spin-off potato chip inventions are just as interesting. 

The potato chip was invented in Saratoga Lake, NY. Its inventor was George Speck—the son of an African American father and Native American mother. Later he professionally adopted the last name Crum. He was a gifted, although surly, cook working as the chef of the Moon Lake Lodge Resort in 1853. One dish on the menu was French-fried potatoes, which are prepared by cutting potatoes lengthwise and lightly frying them.

According to legend, one day a customer repeatedly sent his French-fried potatoes back to the kitchen complaining that they were too thick and soft. Crum’s solution was to thinly slice the potatoes and fry them in grease till brown. The customer loved the crisps and soon other guests began asking for them as well. Soon Crum's "Saratoga Chips" became one of lodge's most popular treats.

Crum’s success prompted him to open his own restaurant in 1860, called "Crumbs House," near Saratoga Lake, where he catered to an upscale clientele. The restaurant promoted a basket of potato chips on every table. Their popularity spread throughout the US under the name “Saratoga Chips” and were first sold in grocery stores in 1895 by William Tappendonby in Cleveland, OH.

The next major potato chip related invention came from California. Potato chips were commonly stored in cracker barrels or glass display cases and served to customers in paper bags. This typically meant that chips had a short shelf life. In 1926 Laura Scudder was working in her family’s chip business in Monterey Park, CA, when she more closely examined the properties of wax paper and had an idea. She asked her employees to hand-iron sheets of wax paper into bags, fill the bags with potato chips, and seal the tops with a warm iron. She found that her wax paper bags kept the chips fresher longer, more protected from contaminants, and less likely to be crushed. This invention revolutionized the potato chip industry. Furthermore, Scudder is credited with being the first to imprint a freshness date on food products.

Another significant potato chip innovation came from Ireland. Potato chips were sold with no flavoring but each bag included a packet of salt you could pour over them. Joseph “Spud” Murphy owned the Tayto potato chip company in Dublin, Ireland and in 1954 he asked one of his employees to experiment with inventing a way to flavor potato chips. Employee Seamus Burke invented the cheese and onion flavor still widely popular in Britain to this day. Through clever marketing Murphy popularized flavored potato chips worldwide. 

Potato chip companies continue to invent. In 2009 Frito-Lay infamously invented a “green bag” for its Sun Chips that was made from plant material and 100% compostable in 14 weeks. Also, different cultures invent different potato chip flavors. In the US, flavors like barbeque and ranch are common, but in places with different palates, other flavors have been invented. For example paprika chips are popular in Germany, mint are popular in India, jamόn (ham) is popular in Spain, and prawn cocktail is popular in the U.K. As with many things, one invention leads to many innovations. I’m sure that George Crum never envisioned the inventions that would be sparked by serving a customer an overdone order of French fried potatoes.  

Sources:

Are you interested in learning more about soap wrapping machine? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!